Friday, September 11, 2009

Parker and Kimballs of Londonderry


Reverend Parker Road is located off Shasta,
not too far from the Parker cellar holes
in the Musquash Conservation Area



Kimball Road is located up near the Londonderry Golf Course,
abutting Musquash Conservation Land
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This story was inspired by the post "The Historic Musquash" by Kathy Wagner at the Londonderry website http://www.londonderrynh.net/?p=12227   on August 4, 2009.

The Rev. Edward Parker wrote the “History of Londonderry”, which was published posthumously in 1851 by his son, Edward P. Parker. A lot has changed since those times, as you can tell from the posting on August 4, 2009 at http://www.londonderrynh.net/ by Kathy Wagner, about the Parker cellar holes in the Musquash Conservation Area. It is hard to imagine that this thickly wooded part of Londonderry was once cleared as farmland, but early photographs of Londonderry show it was almost completely denuded of trees. The reforesting of New Hampshire is perhaps the most interesting thing to happen here since the 1920’s, besides the near quadrupling of our population.

However, upon Googling the Parker names I found that Kathy Wagner had also published a story about the Parker cellar holes at historiclondonderry.com, which is a test site. In this story she mentions the Kimball family previously owning the land. The Reverend Parker’s wife was Mehitable Kimball, part of a very large extended family in Rockingham County, New Hampshire and Essex County, Massachusetts. This family was founded by Richard Kimball and his wife, Ursula Scott, who settled in Watertown and then at Ipswich, Massachusetts. Richard and Ursula are in my family tree, so it was easy to find the link to Londonderry from this clue.

Being a popular name, there are many Parker books available, and some unrelated Parker families in Middlesex County can make sorting out the Parkers very confusing. The Parker family tree can be found in the book “Some New Hampshire Descendants of James Parker of Woburn”, written in 1980 by F. N. Craig, and available at the library at the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston. I found the lineage of Rev. Edward L. Parker on http://www.ancestry.com/ , and the Leach Library in Londonderry has free access to this website, which usually requires a subscription.

The Kimball family tree can be found in the book, “History of the Kimball Family in America, from 1634 to 1897” written in 1897 by Leonard Allison Morrison and Stephen Paschall Sharples. The family tree has been traced back to the 1300s, about three hundred years before Richard and Ursula arrived in America. The NEHGS library in Boston has 57 books about Kimballs on its shelves, and more in the manuscripts and books about allied families. Leonard Allison Morrison also wrote books about the Armstrong family of Windham, the Dinsmoors of Nutfield, and the Morrisons of Londonderry. The Kimball family tree is also on line at http://www.kimballfamily.com/ which is run by the Kimball Family Association.

The Kimball Family Association is having its annual reunion on Sept. 19th, 2009 in Merrimack, New Hampshire. Please see the website for more information.

Parker Lineage:

Gen. 1. John Parker, born about 1585 in Great Burstead, England and died after 1630 in Massachusetts; married to Anna or Joanna (?)

Gen. 2. Captain James Parker, born about 1617 in England and died about 12 Jul. 1700 in Groton, Massachusetts; married on 23 May 1643 in Woburn, Massachusetts to Elizabeth Long, daughter of Robert Long and Sarah Taylor, born about 1621 in Hertfordshire, England, and died about 1691 in Woburn.

Gen. 3. Josiah Parker, born about 1655 in Groton, and died on 26 Jul. 1731 in Cambridge, Massachusetts; married on 8 May 1678 in Chelmsford to Elizabeth Saxton, daughter of Thomas Saxton and Ann Copp, born on 8 Jun. 1661 in Groton, died on 12 Dec 1766 in Groton.

Gen. 4. Rev. Thomas Parker, born Dec. 1700 in Groton, died on 18 Mar 1765 in Dracut; married on 1 Jan 1719/20 in Chelmsford to Lydia Richardson, daughter of Jonathan Richardson and Elizabeth Bates, born on 14 Jul 1702 in Groton, and died on 25 Sep. 1787 in Dracut. Rev. Thomas Parker was the pastor at Dracut for 44 years. Reverend Parker graduated Harvard College in 1718.

Gen. 5. Dr. Jonathan Parker, born on 17 Jul 1743 in Dracut, died in 24 Sep. 1791 in Litchfield; married on 11 Apr. 1767 in Kingston, New Hampshire to Dorothy (Dolly) Coffin, daughter of Peter Coffin and Dorothy Gookin, born on 21 Mar 1744/45. Dr. Jonathan Parker graduated Harvard College in 1762. They had ten children, including a daughter, Elizabeth, who married Abishai Alden on 11 Oct 1833. Abishai was a descendant of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins- both Mayflower passengers. Edward L. Parker was the youngest child.

Gen. 6. Rev. Edward Lutwyche Parker, born on 28 Jul. 1785 in Litchfield, and died 14 Jul. 1850 in Derry; married 1811 to Mehitable Kimball, daughter of Stephen Kimball and Betty Wilson of Hanover, born on 25 Jan. 1782 in Concord, New Hampshire. Reverend Edward L. Parker graduated Dartmouth College, and he was ordained in 1810. His interesting name was from Edward Goldstone Lutwyche, who lived in Merrimack, New Hampshire yet fled to Halifax, Nova Scotia during the Revolution as a loyalist. He was a good neighbor, who never returned to New Hampshire, but was well loved by the people of this area. His property in Merrimack was confiscated, but was known as “Lutwyche’s Ferry” for many years. Children: Caroline, Harriet, Edward Pinkerton, Charles and Frank

Kimball Family lineage:

Gen. 1. Richard Kimball and Ursula Scott (my 11x great grandparents). They were married on 23 Oct. 1615 in Rattlesden, Suffolk, England, and traveled to America on the “Elizabeth” in 1634. They settled in Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Gen. 2. Benjamin Kimball, born on 12 May 1637 in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and died on 11 Jun. 1696 in Bradford, Massachusetts; married in Apr. 1661 in Salisbury to Mercy Hazeltine, daughter of Robert Hazeltine and Ann Langley, born on 16 Oct. 1642 in Rowley, Massachusetts and died on 5 Jan. 1706/7 in Bradford.

Gen. 3 Richard Kimball, born on 3 Dec. 1664 and died on 10 Jan. 1710/11; married on 6 Sep. 1692 to Mehitable Day, daughter of John Day and Sarah Pingree, born on 26 Jan. 1668/9 in Ipswich, Massachusetts and died on 21 Jan. 1731/2. After Richard’s death, Mehitable remarried to his cousin, another Richard Kimball, son of Thomas Kimball and Mary Smith, her first husband’s cousin. She was the wife of two Richard Kimballs, and had both a son and a step-son named Richard Kimball!

Gen. 4. Stephen Kimball, born on 13 Feb. 1707/8 in Bradford, and died in 1756; married on 6 Dec. 1736 to Hannah Perley of Boxford, Massachusetts. Stephen Kimball was a cordwainer (shoemaker).

Gen. 5. Stephen Kimball, born 30 Oct. 1746 in Bradford, and died 4 Mar 1807 in Hanover, New Hampshire; married Betty Wilson of Exeter, New Hampshire. His children were born in Concord, New Hampshire. Stephen Kimball was a farmer at Bradford, Concord and Hanover, New Hampshire, where he helped to found the Congregational Church at Dartmouth College in 1805.

Gen. 6. Mehitable Kimball married Rev. Edward L. Parker (see above)

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This post was also available, with the complete "Memoir for Rev. Edward Lutwyche Parker" by the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, from the book “The History of Londonderry, comrising the towns of Derry and Londonderry, N.H.” , published 1851, and transcribed onto the following website

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Parker and Kimballs of Londonderry", Nutfield Genealogy, posted September 11, 2009, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/09/parker-and-kimballs-of-londonderry.html: accessed [access date])

2 comments:

  1. Hello,
    I came upon your blog when google-ing for information re: the Kimball family. My brother has done quite a bit of work on our family tree, but I think mostly on another line...., and I have recently become more interested in discovering more about my family tree so i just started poking around on the internet. On my mother's grandmother on her father's side, I am also descended from Richard Kimball and Ursula Scott, and their son Benjamin. It is all so fascinating for me. I'm glad I found your blog.

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  2. Fascinating! Our ancestors weave in and out with common ancestry. James Parker 1617 is my 9th gg, and Richard & Ursula my 10th. There are many other links all over your blog. Thank you so much for your work. I'm uploaded to gedmatch if you get into that too. Most of the common ancestors are pretty far back, so more of an intellectual exercise.

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