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20. GEORGE PALMER (bp. 1681–1728) (Gershom, Walter)

George Palmer was baptized on 29 May 1681 in Stonington. He died on 8 May 1728 in Stonington. He married Hannah Palmer on 24 March 1710/1 in Stonington. [1]

In 1708 George’s father gave his sons George and Walter his farm on the eastern slope of Taugmonk. [2]

George Palmer of Stonington, being “very sick and weak,” made his will on 6 April 1728. It was proved the “last day” of May 1728. He left his wife Hannah one-third of the profits and improvements of his real estate for her life and one-third of his personal estate. The rest was to be divided equally between his five sons, Christopher, Zebulon, Joseph, George and Gershom Palmer. The inventory of his estate included his farm, a lot of land at Palmer’s Neck and land lying at Puckingonuck, amounted to about 1,691 pounds. On 8 July 1735 the probate court ordered the land be divided among the five sons and this was agreed to on 9 December 1735. [3]

21. HANNAH PALMER (1694–after 1735) (Joseph, Nehemiah, Walter)

Hannah Palmer was born on 31 May 1694 in Stonington. She was baptized on 12 August 1694 in Stonington. She died after 29 August 1735, when her last child was born. She married first George Palmer on 24 March 1700/1. She married second William York on 22 February 1729/30 in Stonington. William, the son of Thomas and Mary (Brown) York, was born on 3 October 1705 in Stonington. He married first Comfort Burdick on 18 May 1727 in Stonington. She died on 22 July 1728 in Stonington. [4]

Hannah owned the covenant at the first church in Stonington on 28 July 1717. [5] She was admitted to communion with the Second or North Church of Christ in Stonington on 15 April 1739. [6]

Hannah was mentioned in the 3 February 1726/7 will of her brother Jonathan. [7]

Hannah and William York had the following children born in Stonington: Amos, born 15 October 1730, Mary, born 30 April 1732, Jonathan, born 29 August 1735. [8]

Children of George Palmer and Hannah Palmer, all births recorded in Stonington: [9]

i. Ensign Christopher Palmer was born on 13 February 1711/2.  He was baptized on 28 July 1717 in Stonington. He died in May 1790, age 78. He married Esther Prentice of Stonington on 19 January 1758 in Stonington. Esther, the daughter of Samuel and Esther (Hammond) Prentice, was born on 12 December 1713 in Stonington or Newton, Massachusetts. She died in October 1782 in North Stonington, age 78. [10]

Christopher was ensign of the second Stonington company in May 1736. [11]

Christopher and Esther sold 15 acres to Joseph Breed for 150 pounds on 14 March 1735/6. Christopher and Esther of Westerly sold four acres at Palmer’s Neck to Abijah Palmer for 70 pounds on 15 October 1737. [12]

Stonington or Sherborn. Comfort was the daughter of Jonathan and Lydia (Holbrook) Fairbanks. She was born on 8 February 1719/20 in Sherborn. She died on 20 October 1741. He married second Deborah York of Stonington on 3 April 1743 in Stonington. Deborah is probably the daughter of Thomas and Mary (Brown) York, born on 13 January 1719/20 in Stonington. [13]

In March 1738/9 Zebulon sold to Rufus Minor his division of his deceased father’s estate. William and Hannah York gave a quitclaim deed at the same time. On 5 December 1741 Zebulon sold to John York 100 acres in North Stonington for 600 pounds. [14]

On 31 September 1786 Jonathan Palmer gave a receipt that he had received from the widow Deborah Palmer his account against the estate of Zebulon Palmer, late of Voluntown. [15]

iii. Captain Joseph Palmer (#10) was born on 16 August 1717. He died on 12 April 1791.  He married Zipporah Billings.

iv. George Palmer was born on 6 September 1719. He was baptized on 20 September 1719. He died on 15 December 1809 in Stillwater, Saratoga County, New York. He married first Hannah Marsh on 13 April 1742 in Coventry. Hannah, the daughter of James Marsh, was born on 10 July 1721 in Preston. She died on 21 July 1797.  He married second as her third husband Amy Blodgett. Amy, the daughter of William and Sarah Blodgett, was born on 16 February 1723/4 in Plainfield. She died on 24 December 1819 in Canaan. She married first Joshua Whitney, Jr. on about 8 April 1743 in Plainfield. He died on 10 February 1762 in Plainfield. She married second Captain Isaac Lawrence. He died on 14 November 1767. [16]

George went to Coventry in 1739, to Plainfield in 1745, to Canaan in 1751 and to Norfolk in 1760. Later he went to Stillwater, where he bought 500 acres on which there were mills, about three miles from the battlefield where Burgoyne surrendered. [17]

v. Gershom Palmer was born on 13 October 1725. He died on 6 November 1810 in Preston. He married Dorothy Brown on 5 November 1747 in Stonington. Dorothy is probably the daughter of Thomas Brown, born 22 February 1723/4 in Stonington. She died on 1 March 1808 in Preston. [18]

In 1747 Gershom sold land that had belonged to his deceased father. About 1786 he moved to the part of Preston that became Griswold. On 2 January 1789 Gershom of Preston sold land on Palmer’s Neck to William Brown and Elias Sanford Palmer. < [19]

Gershom Palmer of Preston, “being infirm and weak,” made his will on 20 May 1799. He mentioned his wife Dorothy, children and grandchildren. Witnesses testified on 14 March 1811. Inventory on his estate, including his 110-acre farm, amounted to 2,117.45 dollars, and was taken on 17 March 1811. [20]

1. George’ death and marriage records are in CVR, Stonington, 188. His baptism record (as the son of Gershom) is in FCC, 196.

2. Ellen Vose, Robert Vose and His Descendants (Stoughton, MA: n.p., 1932), 30.

3. “Connecticut Wills and Probate Records,” Ancestry > Hartford > Probate Packets, Newbury–Palmer, Thomas, 1675–1850 > images 1111–28.

4. Hannah’s birth record (as the daughter of Joseph), the record of her second marriage, William’s birth record and his first marriage record and Comfort’s death record are in CVR, Stonington, 188, 294–7. Aug. 12, 1694, Hannah’s baptism record (daughter of Gershom) is in FCC, 199. William’s parents in HTS, 696.

5. FCC, 212.

6. CCR, vol. 83 North Stonington, 51.

7. “Connecticut Wills and Probate Records,” Ancestry > Hartford > Probate Packets, Newbury–Palmer, Thomas, 1675–1850 > images 1193–9.

8. CVR, Stonington, 294–7.

9. The births of the children, as children of George, are recorded in CVR, Stonington, 183–97. Christopher’s name is missing in his record. The baptisms of their children—Christopher and Zebulon as the children of Hannah and Joseph and George as the children of George—are recorded in FCC, 212, 214.

10. Christopher’s marriage record and Esther’s birth record are in CVR, Stonington, 185, [missing page number]. Esther’s birth record is in MVR, Newton, vol. 1, 157–9. Esther’s parents, father and great-grandfather in Francis Jackson, History of the Early Settlement of Newton (Boston, Stacy and Richardson, 1854), 390. Death dates in PFG, 91.

11. PFG, 91.

12. Ibid.

13. Zebulon’s marriage records, Deborah’s birth record and her parents’ marriage record are in CVR, Stonington, 196–7, 295, 297. Comfort’s birth record and her marriage record are in MVR, Sherborn, vol. 1, 36, 127. Comfort’s mother’s name and her death date in PFG, 93.

14. PFG, 92.

15. CPR > Hartford > Probate Packets, Morgan, I.–Parkis, P., 1747–1800 > image 977 of 1406.

16. Amy’s birth and first marriage record are in CVR, Plainfield, 11. George’s first marriage record is in Dimock, Births, Marriages and Deaths in Coventry, 155. George’s death date and place, Hannah’s name, birthdate and place and death date; second wife’s death date and place in PFG, 93. George and Amy’s death dates and places, Hannah’s birth and death dates, Joshua’s and Isaac’s death dates in David W. Dumas, “Bacon–Adams–Whitney–Kingsbury Family Record,” NEGHR 138 (1984), 32–38. Sept. 1719: 20 “George palmors Chil baptized,” in DMM, 149.

17. PFG, 93.

18. Gershom’ marriage record and Dorothy’s birth record are in CVR, Stonington, 31, 188. Gershom’s marriage record is in CCR, vol. 83 North Stonington, 51. Their death dates and places are in PFG, 94.

19. PFG, 94.

20. CPR > New London > Probate Records, vol. 11–12 > images 246–7.

Revised November 9, 2019

© 2019 A. Buiter