Mercy Palmer

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1669
• Alternate birth: 8 Sep 1670, Stonington, New London, Connecticut

Notes:

"The Breed Family" (citation details below) says they were married 8 June 1691, but Buys (citations details below) gives the date and place we show, citing the records of the First Congregational Church (the "Road Church") in Stonington.

Mercy married John Breed on 11 Apr 1689 in First Congregational Church, Stonington, New London, Connecticut. John (son of Allen Breed and Mary) was born on 18 Jan 1663 in Lynn, Essex, Massachusetts; died in 1751. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. John Breed was born on 26 Jan 1700 in Stonington, New London, Connecticut; was christened on 31 Mar 1700; died on 24 Jan 1781 in Stonington, New London, Connecticut; was buried in Stonington, New London, Connecticut.

Deacon married Ann Denison about 26 Nov 1667 in Stonington, New London, Connecticut. Ann (daughter of Capt. George Denison and Ann Borodell) was born on 20 May 1649 in Stonington, New London, Connecticut; was christened on 20 May 1649 in Stonington, New London, Connecticut; died in 1694 in Stonington, New London, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Arrived 1629 in Charlestown; first removed to Rehoboth in 1644, then to Stonington in 1653.

In The Great Migration Begins (citation details below), Robert Charles Anderson demonstrated that no evidence exists to prove the parentage of Walter Palmer. In 2020, Perry Streeter ("Walter¹ Palmer of the Great Migration: Probable Origins in Frampton, Dorset", The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 174:21, Winter 2020) set forth the evidence against Charles Edward Banks's claim, endorsed by the Walter Palmer Society, that Palmer's origins were in Yetminster, Dorset. Streeter also put forth evidence suggesting the greater likelihood that Palmer's origins might be found in Frampton, Dorset, instead.

Along with TNH ancestors William Chesebrough, Thomas Stanton, and George Denison, he was one of the founders of Stonington, Connecticut. His and Rebecca Short's descendants include Ulysses S. Grant, Lowell Weicker, and Nathaniel Brown Palmer (1799-1877), explorer, after whom Palmer Land on the Antarctic Peninsula is named.

"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 manslaughter.' 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 Great Migration, citation details below.] According to Wikipedia, Palmer's close friend William Chesebrough testified at the trial on his behalf.

From Wikipedia:

Palmer and Chesebrough took the Oath of a Freeman on May 18, 1631. [...] On August 24, 1643, Palmer and Chesebrough left Charlestown and started a new settlement called Seacuncke (later renamed Rehoboth). Palmer was among the first selectmen. When the settlement assigned itself to Plymouth Colony, the deputy elected to represent Rehoboth at the Plymouth court refused to serve because he preferred attachment to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Palmer was then appointed in his place.

Palmer and Chesebrough were also dissatisfied with the Plymouth alignment, and sometime prior to 1653 John Winthrop, Jr. persuaded Chesebrough to relocate to southern Connecticut. Chesebrough obtained a 2,300-acre land grant in present-day New London, Connecticut; Palmer and his son-in-law Thomas Miner followed him and purchased land on the east bank of Wequetequoc Cove, across from Chesebrough, in present-day Mystic, Connecticut.

In August 1652, Miner built his father-in-law and himself a house on their land; the next year, both their families joined them, and other settlers soon followed. The group struggled for years for self-rule. During that time, Palmer served as constable[4] and again as a selectman. It took until 1661 to build a church meetinghouse due to resistance from the General Court of Connecticut, which preferred the colonists travel across the river to New London. Palmer died two months after the meetinghouse was first used.

The 300-year Stonington Chronology describes Palmer as the "...patriarch of the early Stonington settlers...(who) had been prominent in the establishment of Boston, Charlestown and Rehoboth, ...a vigorous giant, 6 feet 5 inches tall. When he settled at Southertown (Stonington) he was sixty-eight years old, older than most of the other settlers."

Walter married Rebecca Short before 1633. Rebecca died on 15 Jul 1671 in Stonington, New London, Connecticut; was buried in Wequetequock Burial Ground, Stonington, New London, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

A maidservant, she arrived in 1632.

Notes:

Emigrated in 1631 with his parents and brothers. Settled at Roxbury, Massachusetts. Married Bridget Thompson, 1641. She died two years later, whereupon he returned to England to take up arms for Parliament. Was injured and (possibly) captured and escaped, a sequence of events that somehow resulted in him returning to Massachusetts in 1645 with a second wife, Ann Borodell. Removed to New London, 1651; served on the New London war committees in 1653 and 1654, when the Dutch threatened war. Removed to Stonington, 1654. Two decades later, we find him as captain of the New London County forces in King Philip's War, where he fought in and survived the Great Swamp Fight in Rhode Island, 19 Dec 1675. In 1676 he is "Provo-Marshall" of New London, pursuing remnants of the Narragansett and Wampanaug. He captured Chief Canonchet and worked with Pequot chiefs to "control the remnant of their tribe."

"We would premise, that William Denison, came to Roxbury, Mass., in company with Rev. John Eliot, in 1631, bringing with him his wife and three sons, Daniel, Edward and George. The last named married in 1640, Bridget Thompson, supposed to have been a sister of Rev. William Thompson, of Braintree. His wife died in 1643. Mr. Denison visited his native country the same year, 'and engaged in the civil conflict with which the kingdom was convulsed.' On his return to this country, about two years afterwards, he brought with him his second wife, Ann, daughter of John Borrowdale, or Borrodel, of Cork, Ireland. Mr. D. emigrated to Connecticut as early as 1651, and in 1654 settled in what is now Stonington, to which the name of Southerton was given in 1658, when the territory was annexed to the County of Suffolk, Mass. He filled acceptably many offices of public trust, and was particularly distinguished as a leader in King Philip's war. He died at Hartford, Oct. 23d, 1694, during the session of the General Court, and was there buried. His age, according to the inscription on his grave stone, was 76." [Introduction to "Will of George Denison,--1693", New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 13, 1859, p. 73.]

"My Brother George buried his first Wife in the year 1643, went to England, was a soldier there about a year, was at the Battle of York or Marston Moor where he did good service, was afterward taken prisoner, but got free, and having married a second Wife, he returned to New England the year before our Mother died, and not long afterward removed himself to New London, near whereunto at Stonington he now liveth." ["Autobiography of Major-General Daniel Denison." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 46:127, April 1892.]

Along with TNH ancestors William Chesebrough, Walter Palmer, and Thomas Stanton, he was one of the founders of Stonington, Connecticut.

George married Ann Borodell about 1645 in England. Ann (daughter of John Borodell) was born about 1615; died on 26 Sep 1712 in Stonington, New London, Connecticut; was buried in Elm Grove Cemetery, Mystic, New London, Connecticut. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Or Borodale, Borrowdale, etc.; sources vary. Same for her father. She is mentioned in the 2 Sep 1667 will of her brother "John Borrodale of London, gentleman," as "Anne Denison," one of his "loving sisters." (NEHGR 49:503)

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 25 Jan 1653, Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts

Notes:

He was a maltster and a merchant. Emigrated 1631 on the Lyon, along with the Rev. John Eliot, later "apostle to the Indians," said to have been William Denison's children's tutor. With his son Edward, William Denison was among the supporters of Mrs. Hutchinson who were disarmed along with the Rev. John Wheelwright.

William married Margaret Chandler on 7 Nov 1603 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. Margaret (daughter of Tobias Chandler and Joan Momford) was born on 13 Oct 1577 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England; was christened on 13 Oct 1577 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England; died on 3 Feb 1646 in Roxbury, Suffolk, Massachusetts. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Also called Borodale.

Notes:

"John Denison moved to Bishop's Stortford before 1566, for in that year he was 'collector for the poor' in Bishop's Stortford and in 1582 paid a tax in Stortford." [Spencer Miller, "Willie, Denison and Abbott Families", citation details below.]

He was a tailor. He died of the plague.

John married Agnes Wylley on 11 May 1561 in St. James Church, Thorley, Hertfordshire, England. Agnes (daughter of John Wylley and Joan Marshall) was born about 1544; died after 1613. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: Abt 1545, Thorley, Hertfordshire, England

Notes:

He was a tanner and church warden at Stortford.

Tobias married Joan Momford on 21 Sep 1574 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. Joan died before 29 Jun 1618; was buried on 29 Jun 1618 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 4 Feb 1576, Thorley, Hertfordshire, England

John married Joan Marshall on 7 Oct 1540 in Thorley, Hertfordshire, England. Joan was born in of Thorley, Hertfordshire, England; died after May 1574. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Aft 19 Sep 1591

Notes:

"Spencer Miller reports that John Wylley married Joan Marsead; however, the original register clearly shows that her maiden name was Marshall." [William Wyman Fiske, "John Wall of Bishop's Stortford," citation details below.]

"Joan died after 19 Feb 1591, when she witnessed the baptism in Thorley of her granddaughter Elizabeth, daughter of George Wylley." [William Wyman Fiske, "The Wylley and Cramphorne Families of Hertfordshire," citation details below.]

Notes:

Churchwarden at Bishop's Stortford in 1562, 1563, and 1574.

Thomas married Joan Page about 1550. Joan (daughter of John Page and Katherine) was born about 1530; died before 11 Mar 1607 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England; was buried on 11 Mar 1607 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

According to Bartlett (citation details below), her husband's cousin Thomas (b. 1583), son of his farther's brother John Chandler (b. abt. 1525), was also buried on 11 Mar 1607, which to us suggests a local outbreak of pestilence -- not at all uncommon in southern England in the first decade of the seventeenth century.