“Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists."
― Franklin D. Roosevelt
Various spellings of Kimball:
Kemball, Kembolde, Kembold
Europeans who made the voyage to America faced a difficult journey of several months.
The town common (commons) was a small, open field at the center of the town which was jointly owned. It was used as a marketplace, a place for the militia to drill, or for grazing livestock.
Richard Kimball, Jr. was born in 1623 in Rattlesden, Suffolk County, England. His parents were Richard Kimball and Ursula Scott.
He came to America with his family on the ship Elizabeth in 1634. He was a wheelwright and yeoman.
He inherited 40 schillings from his grandfather, Henry Scott, which he would receive when he turned 21. Henry died in 1623.
Both of his wives were named Mary. The first died September 2, 1672.
His children included:
John Kimball (1645),
Samuel Kimball (1651),
Thomas Kimball (1651),
Ephraim Kimball (1660),
Caleb Kimball (1665),
Christopher Kimball (1665),
Richard Kimball (1671),
an unnamed child, and
Nathaniel Kimball (1676).
In a deposition dated' September, 1658, Richard mentioned having "lived on Goodman Shatswell's farm for seven years." The family moved to Wenham between 1652 and 1656. Richard owned large amounts of land there.
On November 8, 1657, he subscribed £3 to the minister's rate, to be paid one-half in wheat and one-half in Indian corn. The next year he was chosen selectman, and continued in that office except for three years to 1674. He participated in committees to consider building a new meeting house, to perfect the line between Bass River and Wenham, and to establish rates for the cost of building a meeting house.
When his father died in 1675 he received “fforty pounds."
Richard died in Wenham on May 26, 1676.
Rattlesden is a village in Suffolk in eastern England. St. Nicholas church dates from the 13th century. The village was a center of Puritanism in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Old Style Calendar
Before 1752 the year began on Lady Day, March 25th,. Dates between January 1st and March 24th were at the end of the year. Old Style (O.S.) and New Style (N.S.) are used to indicate whether the year has been adjusted. Often both dates are used.
A yeoman was a man who owned and cultivated a small farm. He belonged to the class below the gentry or land owners. A husbandman was a free tenant farmer. The social status of a husbandman was below that of a yeoman.
Indian Corn (or flint corn) is the type of maize that Native Americans taught colonists to cultivate. The kernels come in a range of colors and are less prone to spoiling.
The New England Meetinghouse was the only municipal building in a town. Both worship and civil meetings were held there. It was customary for men and women to sit separately and the town chose a committee once a year to assign seats according to what was paid, age, and dignity.
The Battle of Bloody Brook was on September 12, 1675 between the colonial militia led by Captain Thomas Lothrop and Native Americans. A wagon train carrying the harvest from Deerfield to Hadley was ambushed and about 60 colonists massacred.
Genealogical and Family History of the State of Maine by George Thomas Little, Henry Sweetser Burrage, Albert Roscoe Stubbs, published by Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1909
Richard [Kimball], son of Kimball Richard (1) and Ursula (Scott) Kimball, was born in Rattlesden, England, in 1623, and died in Wenham, Massachusetts, May 26, 1676. He came to America with his father. He was called a wheelwright and yeoman.
In a deposition dated September, 1658, he mentions having "lived on Goodman Shatswell's farm for seven years." He removed to Wenham between 1652 and 1656, settled in the westerly part of the town, and was the first settler named Kimball in that town. It seems that he was the largest taxpayer among the early settlers. That he owned large amounts of lands at different times is shown by the records of numerous conveyances in the records at Salem, November 8, 1657, he subscribed £3 to the minister's rate, to be paid one-half in wheat and one-half in Indian corn. The next year he was chosen selectman, and was continued in that office with the exception of three years, till 1674. December 4, 1660, he was one of a committee to see about building a new meeting house. February 28, 1663, the town leased two hundred acres of the best of its common land for one thousand years to Abner Ordway, Thomas Searles, John Edwards and Richard Kimball Jr. Richard Kimball was one of a committee to perfect the line between Bass River and Wenham, and July 18, 1673, was one of a committee to establish rates for the cost of building a meeting house.
The amount of the inventory of his estate taken after his death was £986 16s. 6d. His dwelling house and one hundred and thirty-two acres of land and one hundred and seventy acres of meadow belonging to it were appraised at £370. He also had two hundred acres at Rowley Village. The genealogist deduces from the fact that Thomas Kimball had wages due him from the county at the time of his death, as stated in his inventory, that it is possible that he had been engaged in the war with the Indians, and was probably with his nephew, Caleb Kimball, at the time the latter was killed at Bloody Brook.
Richard Kimball married (first) Mary, whose surname does not transpire. She died September 2, 1672. His second wife was also named Mary, probably Mary Gott. His children, all but the last two probably by his first wife, were: John, Samuel, Thomas, Ephraim, Caleb, Christopher, Richard, a child, and Nathaniel.
American colonists continued to use British monetary units, namely the pound, shilling and pence for which £1 (orli) equalled 20s and 1s equalled 12d. In 1792 the dollar was established as the basic unit of currency.
Rowley, Essex County, Massachusetts was first settled in 1639.
from Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire, Volume 1
edited by Ezra S. Stearns, William Frederick Whitcher, Edward Everett Parker
Samuel [Kimball], second son and child of Richard (2) and Mary Kimball, was born in Ipswich, about 1651, and died in Wenham, October 3, 1716, aged sixty-five. He resided in Wenham where he was surveyor in 1676, constable in 1677, was made freeman May 24, 1682, and was selectman in the same year. He was also an ensign in the militia. On March 2, 1701, he and his wife deeded a lot of ten acres and a house to their son Samuel. His estate was settled by the son Samuel, who took the property and paid off the claims of his brothers and sisters. Their settlement contains the signatures of the husband of the married sisters, and serves to identify them.
Samuel Kimball married, September 20, 1676, Mary Witt, daughter of John and Sarah Witt, of Lynn, Massachusetts.
Their thirteen children, all born in Wenham, were: Samuel, Sarah, Martha (died young), Mary, Richard, Jonathan, John, Ebenezer, Martha, Thomas, Benjamin, Abigail and Jerusha.
