WALTER PALMER 1, was born October 1590 in England, and died November 10, 1661 in Stonington, New London County, Connecticut. He married in England, (1) ANN ELIZABETH, daughter of ANN, called Elizabeth to distinguish her from her mother. She was born 1589. He married (2) REBECCA SHORT. The first record of him is in Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1634. He had a brother Andrew, also there.

From Robert Charles Anderson's The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33. Vol. 1-3. Boston, MA, USA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1995.

ORIGIN: Unknown
MIGRATION: 1629
FIRST RESIDENCE: Charlestown
REMOVES: Rehoboth 1644, Stonington 1653
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: On 1 June 1633 Walter "Pamer," Rebeckah his wife and Grace "Pamer" their daughter were admitted to Charlestown church.
FREEMAN: 18 May 1631 (his absence from the 19 October 1630 list of those wishing to be free may have been a consequence of his pending trial for manslaughter). Propounded freeman of Plymouth Colony 4 June 1645 and admitted 28 October 1645.
OFFICES: Charlestown selectman, 10 February 1634/5, 12 February 1637/8. Constable, 11 July 1636, 17 February 1636/7. Committee to set wages, 28 November 1636. Deputy to Plymouth General Court from Rehoboth, 28 October 1645, 1 June 1647. Grand jury (fined for non-appearance), 7 October 1651. Rehoboth surveyor of highways, 4 June 1650. Constable, 3 June 1652.
ESTATE: In 1629 "Walter Pamer & one or two others...began to build in a straight line upon their two acre lots on the east side of the Towne Hill...this was the beginning of the East Field".

Surrendered five acres of land Mystic Side, 1635. Granted four shares of hayground in 1635, increased to five. Had five acres of land Mystic Side, 1637. Had five and a quarter cow commons, 1637. In the 23 April 1638 Mystic Side allotments received parcels of thirty, sixty-five and five acres. Had six and a quarter cow commons in the stinted common, 30 December 1638.

On 28 May 1638 "Walter Palmer desired two or three parcels of hayground for his son for one cow's hay, was granted rather to have a hay lot among the rest at Mr. Wilson's Point".

In the 1638 Charlestown Book of Possessions Walter Palmer held eleven parcels: "two acres of land ... in the East Field ... with a dwelling house and other appurtenances"; "five acres of arable land ... in the East Field"; "milch cow commons six and a quarter"; four acres in the Line Field; eight acres of meadow in Mystic Marshes; four acres of meadow in Mystic Meadows; five acres of woodland in Mystic Field; five acres of meadow on the west of Mount Prospect; three acres of meadow on the northwest of Mount Prospect; thirty acres of woodland in Mystic Field; and eighty-six acres in Water Field.

His dwelling was in the East Field, as commemorated in the town records: "Walter Pamer & one or two more shortly after [sometime in 1629] began to build in a straight line upon their two-acre lots on the eastside of the Town Hill & set up a slight fence in common that ran up to Thomas Walford's fence; this was the beginning of the East Field".

In his will, dated 19 May 1658, sworn 25 February 1661[/2] and proved 11 May 1662, Walter Palmer bequeathed to "my son John a yoke of three year old steers and a horse"; to "my daughter Grace 20s."; to "all my grandchildren 20s. apiece"; to "my son Jonas half the planting lot at the new meadow river by Seaconcke, & the lot between John Butterwoth's according to the four score pound estate & the use of half the housing & half of the whole farm for four years"; to "my son William the other half of the same farm at Seaconck forever, and to take Robert Martine or some other skillful man & to divide the housing & the whole farm in two equal parts & to take his own & dispose of it as he pleaseth ... also a mare with her foal, two red oxen & a pair of steers of three year old apiece, four cows & a musket with all such things as are his own already"; "the other half of the farm at Seaconcke I give to my son Gersham forever after the end term of four years"; residue to "my loving wife, whom with my son Elihu I make my full executor to pay my debts & to bring up my children & to pay them their portions ... but in case my wife shall marry again before my children are brought up & their portions paid, then my three sons Elihu, Nehemiah & Moses to enter upon the farm & estate & to pay unto their mother £10 per annum during her natural life & the land & estate duly valued to be equally distributed among my children Elyhu, Nehemia, Moses, Benjamin, Gersham, Hannah & Rebecca with consideration of the £10 yearly to be paid to their mother, but if my loving wife pay their portions according to their discretion & my three sons Elihu, Nehemiah & Moses possess the land, they shall give £20 apiece out of the land to my son Benjamin besides his mother's portion in three year's time"; if "Elyhu, Nehemiah or Moses decease before they have any years, Benjamine is to succeed in their part of the farm and give to my daughter Elizabeth two cows".

The inventory of the estate of "Walter Palmer now deceased at Sothertowne in the county of Suffolke" was taken the last of March 1662 and totalled £1644 5s., including "housing and lands" valued at £661 and "goods at New London, Seaconcke & the Dutch" valued at £120.

BIRTH: By about 1589 based on estimated date of first marriage.
DEATH: Southerton (later Stonington, Connecticut) "Sabbath day the 10th of November 1661 Walter Palmer departed this world".
MARRIAGE: (1) By about 1614 _____ _____; she died by 1633. (2) By 1633 REBECCA SHORT "a maid servant, she came in the year 1632 & was married to [blank] Palmer a godly man of Charlestowne church". (Wyman claims that Walter and Rebecca were married 1 June 1633 [Wyman 507], but there is no record of the marriage and this was the date they were admitted to the Charlestown church.) She died Stonington 15 July 1671 ("Saturday at night Mother Palmer departed this life").

Children of WALTER PALMER and ANN ELIZABETH are:

i. GRACE, b. about 1614 (aged 53 in 1667); m. Charlestown 23 April 1634 THOMAS MINOR (this place and date given in several secondary sources, but primary source not found).
ii. JOHN, b. about 1615 (d. 24 August 1677 aged sixty-two years); John Palmer was receiving grants of land in Charlestown as early as 1635, and in the 1638 Book of Possessions had four parcels; that he was the son of Walter is shown by his will; unm.
iii. ELIZABETH, b. say 1617; m. (1) before 29 March 1656 Thomas Sloan ("my Brother Sloan was here"); m. (2) 26 October 1677 William Chapman ("I married our sister Elizabeth Sloan").
iv. WILLIAM, b. say 1619; d. after 1672 (when brother Gershom had more than one son, since William indicated in his will that Gershom should settle "one of" his sons on William's land) and probably before 1677 (when his brother John does not name him in his will), but certainly before 27 March 1697.
v. JONAH, b. say 1621; m. (1) Rehoboth 3 May 1655 Elizabeth Grisell (marriage record does not give bride's name; on 9 November 1655 "Jonas Palmer and Elizabeth Palmer of Rehoboth" sold to William Bullard, for a consideration part of which was to be paid to "Hannah Grissell daughter of Francis Grissell of Charlestown aforenamed deceased," land in Charlestown "by the last will and testament of the said Francis Grissell deceased given and bequeathed unto the said Elizabeth Palmer"); m. (2) Rehoboth 9 November 1692 Abigail (Carpenter) Titus, daughter of William Carpenter and widow of John Titus.

Children of WALTER PALMER and REBECCA SHORT are:

vi. HANNAH, bp. 15 June 1634; m. (1) 26 April 1659 Thomas Hewitt; m. (2) Stonington 27 December 1671 Roger Sterry; m. (3) Stonington 25 August 1681 John Fish. (The precise dates for the second and third marriages of Hannah are given in many secondary sources, but do not appear in the Stonington vital records. Wheeler does provide clues pointing to the location of the evidence for these marriages [e.g., "An interesting jointure between them is preserved in our old Stonington records," Stonington Hist 508].)
vii. ELIHU, bp. 24 January 1635/6; d. 5 September 1665; unm.
viii. NEHEMIAH, bp. 23 November 1637; m. Stonington 20 November 1662 Hannah Stanton.
ix. MOSES, bp. 6 April 1640; m. by about 1672 Dorothy Gilbert.
x. BENJAMIN, b. 30 May 1642; bp. 6 June 1642; m. Antigua by 8 May 1681 _____ _____. ("8 [May 1681] I received Brother Benjamin his letter from Antego" and on 10 August 1681 "Benjamin Palmer brought home his wife").
xi. GERSHOM, b. say 1644; m. (1) 26 November 1667 (that week) Ann Denison; m. (2) 11 November 1707 Elizabeth (Peck) Mason, widow of Samuel Mason (son of JOHN MASON).
xii. REBECCA, b. say 1646; m. (1) Stonington 20 April 1665 Elisha Cheeseborough ("our sister Rebecka was married"), son of WILLIAM CHEESEBOROUGH; m. (2) Stonington 24 July 1672 John Baldwin.

ASSOCIATIONS: Wyman thought that ABRAHAM PALMER and Walter Palmer might be brothers, but there is no evidence for this position.
COMMENTS: "Walter Pamer" was admitted as an inhabitant of Charlestown in 1629. He appears in the lists of Charlestown inhabitants of 9 January 1633/4 and January 1635/6.

On 28 September 1630 a coroner's jury met to "inquire concerning the death of Austen Bratcher ... dying lately at Mr. Cradock's plantation." The jury found "that the strokes given by Walter Palmer were occasionally the means of the death of Austen Bratcher, & so to be man-slaughter." Palmer was bound over for trial on 19 October, but at that court the case was continued to 9 November, at which time a trial was held, and the jury found Palmer not guilty.

The two eldest children of Walter Palmer, Grace and John, were certainly born in the middle years of the second decade of the seventeenth century. For the next three children, Elizabeth, William and John, the chronological evidence is not so helpful. All three of them could be ten years younger than the estimates given here without contradicting anything we know about them. Were this the case, a large gap would open up between the birthdates of the second and third of Walter's children, suggesting that he may have had two wives in England rather than one. For the sake of simplicity, and pending further evidence, we choose here the solution which gives Walter only two wives in all.

Along with WILLIAM CHEESEBOROUGH, Thomas Stanton, George Dennison and his son-in-law THOMAS MINOR, Walter Palmer was one of the founders of Stonington, Connecticut, and he and many of his descendants played a leading role in the life of that town.

JONAH OR JONAS PALMER 2, was born Abt. 1621 in of London, England, and died June 22, 1709 in Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts. He married (1) ELIZABETH GRISSELL OR GRISWOLD May 3, 1655 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts, daughter of FRANCIS GRISWOLD and MARY. She was born 1637 in of Cambridge, M., Massachusetts, and died Abt. February 1691 in Rehoboth, Bristol, Massachusetts. He married (2) ABIGAIL CARPENTER November 2, 1692 in Rehoboth, Bristol Co., MA, daughter of WILLIAM CARPENTER and ABIGAIL SEARLES.

Children of JONAH PALMER and ELIZABETH GRISWOLD are:

i. HANNAH PALMER, b. November 8, 1658; m. JOHN FRENCH, November 27, 1676, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts.
ii. SAMUEL PALMER, b. November 20, 1659, New England; d. November 18, 1743, Windham, W., Connecticut.
iii. JONAH PALMER, b. March 29, 1662, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts; d. 1730, Windham, Windham County, Connecticut; m. ELIZABETH KENDRICK, March 28, 1689, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts.
iv. MARY PALMER, b. February 23, 1663, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts; d. 1757, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts; m. JOSEPH DOGGETT, Abt. February 14, 1688.
v. MARTHA PALMER, b. July 6, 1666; d. September 18, 1762.
vi. GRACE PALMER, b. October 1, 1668, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts; m. JAMES CARPENTER, April 15, 1695, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts.

The name of Jonas Palmer is found listed as a freeman of Rehoboth in 1658.

SAMUEL PALMER was born November 20, 1659 in New England, and died November 18, 1743 in Windham, Connecticut. He married (1) ELIZABETH KINSLEY December 29, 1680 in Windham, Connecticut, daughter of EDWARD KINGSLEY and MEHITABLE MOWRY. She was born January 29, 1662 in Windham, Connecticut, and died May 16, 1717 in Windham, Connecticut. He married (2) ANN DURGE December 6, 1727. He served under Major William Bradford in the Narragansett Swamp Fight, in 1676. In 1701 he bought land in Windham County, Connecticut. His will is on record in Willimantic.

Children of SAMUEL PALMER and ELIZABETH KINSLEY are:

i. JOHN PALMER, b. March 25, 1682, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts; d. Abt. January 1683, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts.
ii. JOHN PALMER, b. January 4, 1683, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts; d. July 15, 1683, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts.
iii. SAMUEL PALMER, b. January 4, 1683, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts.
iv. MEHITABLE PALMER, b. April 11, 1686, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts.
v. NEHEMIAH PALMER, b. March 11, 1688, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts; d. Abt. March 13, 1688, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts.
vi. BENONI PALMER, b. July 27, 1690, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts; d. Abt. July 27, 1690, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts.
vii. MARY PALMER, b. December 17, 1691, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts.
viii. SETH PALMER, b. April 11, 1694, Rehoboth, B., Massachusetts; m. in Windsor, now Willimantic, April 19, 1720, ELIZABETH, daughter of JOSEPH and MARY CRANE. She was born April 14, 1700, and died January 8, 1738. He married, (2) June 14, 1739, Mary Mosely, a widow. He died August 1, 1772 at Windham, Connecticut.
ix. ELIZABETH PALMER, b. February 6, 1696, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts.
x. EBENEZER PALMER, b. October 21, 1699, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts.
xi. MERCY PALMER, b. January 17, 1700, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts.
xii. ELEAZER PALMER, b. June 10, 1702, Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts; m. MARY LILLIE, 1723.

SETH5 PALMER was born April 11, 1694 in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, and died August 1, 1772 in Windham, Connecticut. He married ELIZABETH CARY April 19, 1720 in Windsor (now Willimantic), Connecticut, daughter of JOSEPH CARY and MERCY BUSHNELL. She was born April 14, 1700 in Windham, Connecticut, and died January 8, 1738 in Windham, Connecticut.

Child of SETH PALMER and ELIZABETH CARY is:

i. MARY PALMER, b. October 17, 1723, Scotland Parish, Windham, Connecticut; d. Aft. 1770, ?.

MARY PALMER was born October 17, 1723 in Scotland Parish, Windham, Connecticut, and died Aft. 1770 in ?. She married ELISHA HIBBARD August 16, 1744 in Windham, Connecticut, son of NATHANIEL HIBBARD and SARAH CRANE. He was born December 11, 1719 in Windham, New London, Connecticut, and died Aft. 1790 in ? possibly New Fairfield, Fairfield County, Connecticut.

For descendants of
Mary Palmer Hibbard and Elisha Hibbard see Hibbard Genealogy.

Click Here to Return Home