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16. CAPTAIN ICHABOD PALMER (bp. 1677–1746/9) (Gershom, Walter)

Ichabod Palmer was baptized on 9 September 1677 in Stonington.[1] He died between 8 May 1746, when he wrote his will, and 28 May 1749, when his witnesses testified. He married his cousin Hannah Palmer shortly after 4 July 1697. [2]

Mr. Ichabod Palmer was deputy to the General Assembly in New Haven on 9 October 1707. He was appointed lieutenant of the north company in Stonington on the same date. On 10 May 1716 Captain Ephraim Minor and Lieutenant Ichabod Palmer were appointed to lead the upper company in Preston to a choice of officers. In May 1720 Ichabod was appointed captain of the third company in Stonington. [3]

Ichabod and Henry Crane of Tilton, Massachusetts received a mortgage deed from Thomas Shaw in 1715. Ichabod had 100 acres laid out to him, which were a former grant to [his grandmother] Mrs. Rebecca Palmer, on 19 March 1715/6. Ichabod and his wife Hannah and Daniel Palmer, as heirs to [Hannah’s father] Nehemiah Palmer, deceased, gave a quit claim deed to their brother Jonathan Palmer on 24 March 1717. On 10 April 1717 Hannah, the widow of Nehemiah Palmer, gave a deed “to my son and daughter, Ichabod and Hannah Palmer, of all the goods and chattels in the house of my son Daniel Palmer, which were left to me by my late deceased husband, together with one-third of the housings, lands, barns, orchards, to be theirs henceforth.” Fifty acres, formerly belonging to Mrs. Rebecca Palmer, in the part of Stonington known as Cotopeset, were laid out for Ichabod on 1 November 1727. [4]

On 23 December 1723 there was a dispute between Captain Ichabod Palmer and Ensign John Breed over a piece of land that Gershom Palmer of Killingworth bought from John Frink and assigned to Captain Ichabod Palmer and John Frink. On 28 August 1727 Ichabod gave his son Ichabod a deed to land at Puckhunganuck given to him and his three brothers by his father Gershom Palmer, along with a right he bought from his brother Walter Palmer, deceased, on 1 December 1721. [5]

Captain Ichabod Palmer and Stephen Minor of Stonington had a legal dispute over the will of Captain Saxton that was ongoing in October 1737. [6]

Ichabod signed his will on 8 May 1746. [7] His heirs were his wife Hannah; his sons Ichabod and Nathaniel Palmer; his daughter Lucy (Palmer) Chesebrough’s orphaned daughters Lucy (Chesebrough) Denison and Hannah Chesebrough; and his deceased son Elias Palmer’s children Elias and Marvin Palmer.

Item: I give unto my two sons, viz: Ichabod & Nathaniel Palmer all my wearing apparel to be equally divided between them. Item: I give unto my sd. son Ichabod Palmer all ye farm that he now lives on. The sd. farm I gave him sd. deed of gift of being and lying in Stonington above [Thomas Shaw’s?] farm lying at a place called or known by the name of Puckhunganuck and also I give unto my sd. son Ichabod Palmer ye guns and sword, and cane, that he now has in his hands. Forever, the above is my sd. son’s full part of my estate.

Ichabod left his son Nathaniel and his grandson Elias each half of the farm that he lived on, with half of the orchards, fences and outbuildings; half of his house and cellar; half of his neck of land by the Wequetequock River in Stonington; half of his land lying between Ebenezer Niles’s land and John Frink’s land. If Elias were to die without children, then his half of the farm, house and lands were to go to Nathaniel or Nathaniel’s heirs. Ichabod also left Nathaniel the gun, sword and cane that Nathaniel then had, the cane being given to Ichabod by Captain Saxon. He left Elias his own gun and sword and a cane to be purchased out of his movables. If Elias lived to be 21, he was to pay his sister Marvin 150 pounds; if he did not then Nathaniel or his heirs were to pay her 250 pounds and to also pay a further 250 pounds to be divided between Ichabod’s children.

Ichabod left his granddaughters Lucy and Hannah his movables after the decease of his wife. He left his wife Hannah the use of his house and movables. He also left her “one Negro or Molatto boy named jack.” He named his wife and sons Nathaniel Palmer and Captain John Randall [the husband of his daughter-in-law Mary (Holmes) (Palmer) Randall] his executors.

On 28 May 1749 the witnesses to his will testified. Inventory was taken on 10 August 1749 and 26 February 1749/50 and it totaled £11,827 8s. 00d., of which 9,010 pounds worth was land. On 16 March 1757, Elias and Nathaniel agreed upon three men to divide the estate.

17. HANNAH PALMER (bp. 1680–1757) (Nehemiah, Walter)

Hannah Palmer was baptized on 11 April 1680 in Stonington. [8]  She died between 21 May and 27 July 1757. [9]  She married Ichabod Palmer.

Hannah Palmer, widow and relict of Captain Ichabod Palmer of Stonington, made her will on 21 May 1757. It was proved on 27 July 1757. [11]

… I give unto my two granddaughters Lucy Denison and Hannah Palmer [apparently the daughters of her daughter Lucy] all my wearing apparel & my two silver cups & six silver spoons … I give to my granddaughter Hannah Palmer my chest of drawers … I give to … Lucy Denison my round table and my two trunks … I give to … Hannah Palmer my [?] mortar … I give to … Lucy Denison my best chest and my books I give equally between my two granddaughters before named except 1 bible I give to my granddaughter Marvil Palmer … I give to Hannah Palmer my two great [?] platters … all my linen to be equally divided between my two granddaughters Lucy and Hannah … I give to … Hannah Palmer a feather bed & a set of white curtains and blue & white [?] … I give to … Lucy & Hannah each of them a cow & two [ten?] sheep … I give to my son Nathll Palmer two cows ten sheep & half of outdoor iron … I give to my loving grandson Elias Palmer all my indoor iron & half of outdoor iron one yoak of oxen, a cow & half a note I have upon Mr. Nathll Ells … I give to sd Revrnd Mr. Nathll Ells fifty pounds … I give to … Lucy Denison my two gold rings … I give to … Hannah Palmer my gold necklace & locket … I give to Lucy Denison [?] … If there be anything left … I give and bequeath ye same to my son Nathll Palmer & my grandson Elias Palmer … my beloved grandson James Palmer to be my executor …
 
Hannah’s estate included an extensive wardrobe: gowns of silk damask, spotted calico, silk crepe and ruffled; petticoats of various colors, hoods of silk and velvet and a riding hood, shifts, stockings, handkerchiefs, aprons, caps, a silk bonnet, a pair of stays and black gloves.

Children of Captain Ichabod Palmer and Hannah Palmer: [12]

i. Lucy Palmer was baptized on 28 May 1699 in Stonington. She died on 2 March 1736/7 in Stonington. She married William Chesebrough on 8 September 1720 in Stonington. William was the son of William (William) and Mary (McDowell) Chesebrough. He died on 23 February 1736/7. [13]

William’s will, dated 22 February 1736/7, mentions Lucy, children Lucy and Hannah and brothers Nathaniel Palmer and Jonathan Chesebrough. Lucy’s will is dated 28 February 1736/7. She said that she was sick and weak and she mentions her mother Mrs. Hannah Palmer. [14]

ii. Lieutenant Ichabod Palmer (#8) was born on 25 October 1702 in Stonington. He died on 9 November 1749 in Stonington. He married Elizabeth Sanford Noyes.

iii. Prudence Palmer was born on 29 May 1706 in Stonington. She was baptized on 28 or 29 July 1706 in Stonington. She died on 22 December 1716. [15]

Prudence’s gravestone in the Ancient Burial Ground in Stonington says, “Here lyeth the body/of Prudence Daughter/of Ichaboad And/Hannnah Palmer who/Dyed December/ye 22 In ye 11 year of/Her age 1716” [16]

iv. Daniel Palmer was baptized on 18 December 1709 in Stonington. He probably died, without children, before 8 May 1746, when he was not mentioned in his father’s will.

v.Nathaniel Palmer was born about 1707. He died on 30 May 1790, age 83. He married first Mary Chesebrough on 9 June 1731 in Stonington. Mary, the daughter of Samuel and Mary (Ingraham) Chesebrough was born on 10 September 1710 in Stonington. She died on 15 or 17 June 1768 in Groton. He married second Anna Way on 18 June 1769 in New London. It is possible that Anna is the daughter of Thomas and Anne Way, born 28 January 1713 in New London. [17]

On 9 May 18[7?]60, Nathaniel Palmer of Groton sold 306-1/2 acres in Stonington that he had bought from Benjamin Clark to Benjamin Clark for 1,000 pounds. On 10 June 1769 he sold to his son Nathaniel his house, barn and all of his land in Stonington. [18]

Nathaniel Palmer of Groton made his will on 8 November 1782. Inventory was taken on his movables on 3 June 1790. Nathaniel mentioned his wife Anna Palmer and his children and grandchildren. He left his son Nathaniel land in Stonington that he bought from John Hallam and his silver-headed cane, gun and sword. [19]

vi. Elias Palmer was baptized on 15 May 1715 in Stonington. He died on 13 March 1738/9 in Stonington. He married Mary Holmes of Stonington on 26 February 1734/5 in Stonington. [20] Mary, the daughter of Joshua (Joshua, Robert) Holmes and Fear Sturgis, was born on 19 Mar 1712/3 in Stonington. She died, probably in Stonington, before 3 May 1759, when her second husband made his will. She married second as his second wife Lieutenant John Randall. John, the son of John Randall and Abigail Billings and granddaughter of William Billings (#88), was born on 2 December 1701 in Westerly, Rhode Island. He died on 10 July 1761 in Stonington. John married first Dorothy Cottrell. [21]

Inventory was taken on Elias’s estate on 20 May 1739. Mary Palmer was the administratrix of her husband’s estate. She appeared in probate court on 14 August 1739 and she and Ichabod Palmer posted a bond on Elias’s estate on the same day. [22]

Elias’s gravestone in the Ancient Burial Ground in Stonington says, “In Memory of Elias ye Son of/Ichabod Palmer/died March ye 13th/1738 in ye 24th year of his age.” [23]

Mary, the wife of Elias, was baptized on 30 November 1735 in North Stonington. [24]

Endnotes

1. Ichabod’s baptism record (as the son of Gershom) is in FCC, 195.

2. J.D. Champlin, “Ancient Burial Ground at Stonington, Conn.,” NEHGR 13 (1859), 23–9, specifically 28. Ichabod (1677–1752) & Hannah Palmer (1680–1757), Stonington. “New England Marriages to 1700,” digitized book, AmericanAncestors, 1130, citing Clarence Almon Torrey, New England Marriages to 1700 (Boston: NEHGS, 2015). July 1697: “icabod palmor published,” in DMM, 24.

3. PRC, vol. 5, 30, 33, 559; vol. 6, 174.

4. PFG, 53–55.

5. Ibid.

6. PRC, vol. 8, 141.

7. CPR > Hartford > Probate Packets, Newbury–Palmer, Thomas, 1675–1850 > images 1181–8.

8. PFG, 53–5.

9. FCC, 195, Apr. 11, 1680, Hannah, daughter of Nehemiah Palmer.

10. FCC, 202, May 28, 1699, Hannah, wife of Ichabod Palmer owned the covenant, and their daughter Lucy was baptized.

11. CPR > Hartford > Probate Packets, Newbury–Palmer, Thomas, 1675–1850 > images 1129–43.

12. The births of Ichabod (as the son of Ichabod) and Prudence (as the daughter of Ens. Ichabod) are recorded in CVR, Stonington, 183–93. The baptisms of the children (except Nathaniel) as the children of Ichabod are recorded in FCC, 202–11.

13. FCC, 202, May 28, 1699, Hannah, wife of Ichabod Palmer owned the covenant, and their daughter Lucy was baptized. PFG, 85, Lucy and William’s death dates, their marriage date and William’s parents.

14. PFG, 85.

15. July 1706: 28 “Echobods Child baptized,” in DMM, 93.

16. Champlin, “Ancient Burial Ground at Stonington,” 28.

17.  Nathaniel’s death date and age, his first marriage date and his first wife’s name and death date (15 June), his second wife’s name, and second marriage date and place in PFG, 87–88. Mary’s birth record and the record of her marriage to Samuel are in CVR, Stonington, 55. Anne’ birth record is in CVR, New London, 313.

18. PFG, 87–88.

19. CPR > New London > Probate Packets, Main, Amos–Ptter, H., 1835–1880 > images 977–81 of 1400.

20. Elias’s death and marriage records are in CVR, Stonington, 186. Elias’s marriage record is in CCR, 83 North Stonington, 51.

21. Elizabeth P. White, Marilyn R. Landry and Kendall P. Hayward, “Joshua Holmes of Stonington, Connecticut (1678–1729)” NEHGR 142 (1988), 167, 174.

22. CPR > Hartford > Probate Records, vol. 5–6, 1786–1802 > images 131–3 of 1565.

23. Champlin, “Ancient Burial Ground at Stonington,” 28.

24. CCR, 83 North Stonington, 52.

Revised November 9, 2019

© 2019 A. Buiter