The information on this page is derived from Palmer Families in America by Horace Wilbur Palmer, which is well documented, discusses contradictory evidence, and makes careful judgments.

WILLIAM¹ PALMER^[1] was born at England between 1610 and 1615, and died at Middleboro, New Netherlands, before 29 November 1661. He married about 1638 JUDITH FEAKE. She was born at England between 1617 and 1620 , a daughter of James Feake and ________ Dixon. She died at Stamford, Fairfield County, Connecticut, on 1668. Judith married second JEFFREY FERRIS, who died on 31 May 1666. Jeffrey had previously married SUSANNAH (________) LOCKWOOD, the widow of ROBERT LOCKWOOD. Susannah died on 23 December 1661. Judith married third JOHN BOWERS, wh0 died on 1695. John married second after 1668 HANNAH (CLOSE) KNAPP, the widow of JOSHUA KNAPP.

The first record of William Palmer in America is 7 January 1638/9, when he was propounded to be a freeman of the town of Yarmouth in Plymouth Colony. A freeman was a full citizen of the colony, with voting rights. Generally a man would be "propounded" at one meeting of the colony, and voted on at a later meeting, and then take the Freeman's Oath and become a full citizen. William took the Freeman's Oath at Yarmouth on 1 September 1640.

It is not known if William Palmer and Judith Feake married in old England or New England, but the marriage probably took place soon before or after their emmigration. Some other members of her extended family also emmigrated. Her family lived at London, Middlesex County, England. Her father, James Feake, was a child of another James Feake and his wife Judith Thomas.

William Palmer was an active leader in the community of Yarmouth. On 3 September 1639 (before he took the Freeman's Oath) he was appointed to lead the citizens of Yarmouth in the exercise of arms. He served as a delegate from Yarmouth to the General Court (legislature) of Plymouth Colony from 1642 to 1644, and again from 1648 to 1650.

In 1652 William Palmer was part of a group of New Englanders who established a settlement at Middleboro, on Long Island, in New Netherlands Colony. New Netherlands became New York Colony in 1664, Middleboro changed its name to Newtown in 1665, and when New York established counties in 1683, it fell within the bounds of Queens County. William Palmer was elected Magistrate of Middleborough from 1657 to 1660. He died some time before 29 November 1661, when his wife signed a deed in her own right.

Judith (Feake) Palmer moved to Greenwich, New Haven Colony (later Fairfield County, Connecticut) soon after her husband's death, and about 1662 married Jeffrey Ferris, as his second wife. The Palmers came to Long Island with four or five children and Judith left there with seven children, probably five of whom were under the age of sixteen. About four years after their marriage, Jeffrey Ferris died. A year or two after his death, Judith married John Bowers, but she died about a year later.

William and Judith lived short lives by our standards, both dying before the age of fifty-one. Judith left four minor children at her death.

William Palmer and his wife Judith Feake had the following children:

1. SUSANNA² PALMER b. at Yarmouth, Plymouth Colony, about 1640-1; d. at Jamaica, Queens County, New York; m. about 1659 SAMUEL MILLS, b. on 1632, d. at Jamaica on 10 March 1727.
2. EPHRAIM² PALMER b. at Yarmouth about 1642-3; d. at Greenwich, Fairfield County, on August 1684; m. about 1668 SARAH MESSENGER, b. about 1645-50.
3. JUDITH² PALMER b. at Yarmouth about 1646-8; d. at Greenwich before 1716; m. at Greenwich about 1667-8 JOHN REYNOLDS, b. at Greenwich about 1638-9, d. between 8 November and 17 December 1701.
4. JOHN² PALMER b. at Yarmouth about 1650-1; d. at Greenwich before 26 October 1672.
5. JAMES² PALMER b. at Yarmouth about 1652-3.
6. WILLIAM² PALMER b. at Middleboro about 1654-6; d. about 1723-4; m. MARY TYLER, b. on 1660.
7. JOSEPH² PALMER b. at Middleboro about 1656-7; d. about 1724/5; m. ELIZABETH TYLER, b. at Milford, New Haven Colony, on 1663.

JAMES² PALMER^[2] (William¹) was born at Yarmouth, about 1652-3, a son of William Palmer and his wife Judith Feake, and died about 1717/8. He married about 1678-9 SARAH DENHAM. She was born about 1655-60, a daughter of Thomas and Sarah Denham. She died before 1724.

James Palmer was probably born at Yarmouth, grew up on Long Island, and lived as an adult at Greenwich. He and his brother Ephraim were granted six acres of land in Greenwich on 31 May 1673. In March of 1679 he was granted a house lot. This suggests that he was probably married about that time.

Sarah Denham, the wife of James Palmer, was a daughter of the Reverend Thomas Denham and his wife Sarah. Born about 1621-2, Thomas Denham lived at Sheepscot, Maine, before Indian troubles drove him out, about 1675. He was pastor at Rye, which at the time belonged to Fairfield County, Connecticut (later to Westchester County, New York) from 1677 to 1684. He then served the church at Bedford, Westchester County, from 1684 to his death there in July of 1689.

James Palmer and his wife Sarah Denham had the following children:

1. JAMES³ PALMER b. at Greenwich about 1680; d. about 1705.
2. SAMUEL³ PALMER b. at Greenwich about 1682.
3. SARAH³ PALMER b. at Greenwich about 1685.
4. DAVID³ PALMER b. at Greenwich on 15 January 1693/4 ; d. there on May 1774; m. on 22 August 1718 ELIZABETH HUBBARD, b. at Greenwich on 17 November 1698.
5. ELIZABETH³ PALMER b. at Greenwich about 1695/6; m. on 18 April 1717 BENJAMIN FINCH.
6. JONATHAN³ PALMER b. at Greenwich about 1697-8; d. there on 1785; m. on 10 December 1719 ANN FAVOR, b. on 27 December 1702.
7. BENIJAH³ PALMER b. at Greenwich about 1700.

SAMUEL³ PALMER^[3] (James², William¹) was born at Greenwich about 1682 a son of James Palmer and his wife Sarah Denham, and died on August 1733. He married at Stamford, Fairfield County, on 21 March 1714/5 HANNAH (KNAPP) CROSS. She was born on 1676, a daughter of Moses Knapp and his wife Abigail Westcott. Hannah had previously married on 6 November 1696 NATHANIEL CROSS, who died at Stamford on 1714/5.

Samuel Palmer grew up in Greenwich. When he was thirty-three and the widow Hannah (Knapp) Cross was thirty-nine, they married at Stamford, Fairfield county. Hannah brought four children from her first marriage to their new family. They made their home in Stamford, where their children were born.

Hannah Knapp and her first husband Nathaniel Cross had the following children:

1. DEBORAH CROSS.
2. JOHN CROSS.
3. SARAH CROSS.
4. MARY CROSS.

Hannah (Knapp) Cross and her second husband Samuel Palmer had the following children:

5. HANNAH⁴ PALMER b. at Stamford on 21 December 1715; d. before 1754; m. on 17 January 1733/4 SIMON INGERSOLL, b. on 1710, d. at Greenwich on 1758.
6. SAMUEL⁴ PALMER b. at Stamford on 1717.
7. ABIGAIL⁴ PALMER b. at Stamford on 1719; m. NATHANIEL REYNOLDS, b. on 1709.

SAMUEL⁴ PALMER^[4] (Samuel³, James², William¹ ) was born at Stamford on 1717 a son of Samuel Palmer and his wife Hannah Knapp, and died on August 1796. Fe first married ________ ________. He second married about 1751-2 ESTHER PALMER. She was born at Greenwich on 19 May 1730, a daughter of William and Rachel Palmer. She died on 2 March 1799.

Samuel Palmer was living in Greenwich when he was deeded land by Simon and Hannah Ingersol, his sister and brother-in-law, on 29 April 1739. However within four months he deeded the property back to them. When he again sold land in Greenwich on 25 February 1739/40 he was described as Samule Palmer of Filkintown, a location in Dutchess County, New York. All of his children whose birthplaces are known, were born in Nine Partners, Dutchess County - a land grant to nine partners, which later was organized into several towns.

The name of Samuel Palmer's first wife is not known. They were probably married before the birth of their first known child, about 1744-6, and she probably died after the birth of their third child in 1750. Samuel Palmer married Esther Palmer about 1751-2. His three small children by his first marriage were joined by four children by this second wife.

Samuel Palmer was identified as still living in Nine Partners on 1 April 1769 on a sale of land in Greenwich. However he was receiving land in Landaff, Groton County, New Hampshire, on 27 April 1768, and appears often in land transfers at Landaff after that, until 1785. His whereabouts for the last decade of his life is not known.

Samuel Palmer and his first wife had the following children:

1. ELIAS⁵ PALMER b. about 1744-6; m. REBECCA ________.
2. OBADIAH⁵ PALMER b. at Nine Partners, Dutchess County, New York, on 19 August 1748; d. at Plattekill, Ulster County, New York, on 12 November 1824; m. at Nine Partners on 17 April 1773 CATHERINE HALLOCK, b. at Setauket, Suffolk County, New York, on 31 May 1750, d. at Plattekill on 18 July 1834.
3. SAMUEL⁵ PALMER b. at Nine Partners on 30 November 1750.

Samuel Palmer and his second wife, Esther Palmer, had the following children:

4. JAMES⁵ PALMER b. at Nine Partners on 13 January 1752/3; d. at Onondaga County, New York, on 16 September 1918; m. on 1771 ELIZABETH CLOSE, b. on 9 November 1752, d. at Onondaga County on 16 February 1818.
5. HENRY⁵ PALMER.
6. AARON⁵ PALMER b. about 1763.
7. MOSES⁵ PALMER b. at Nine Partners on 8 May 1775; d. at Saint Lawrence County, New York, on 15 November 1849; m. JERUSHA DAY, b. on July 1783, d. at Yorkville, Kendall County, Illinois, on 11 November 1854.

SAMUEL⁵ PALMER^[5] (Samuel^4-3, James², William¹) was born at Nine Partners on 30 November 1750 a son of Samuel Palmer and his first wife, and died at Middleburg, Schoharie County, New York, on 25 December 1842. He married on 1775 SARAH ________. She was born on 4 November 1758 and died at Middleburg on August 1831.

Samuel Palmer grew up in Dutchess County, and did not follow his father to New Hampshire. Several members of his extended family became members of the Religious Society of Friends, and Samuel witnessed one of their marriages at a Friends meeting on 17 April 1773.

Samuel Palmer fought in the Revolutionary War, serving from February 1, 1776 to 1 January 1777 as a private in a Connecticut regiment. He was allowed to leave at that time on account of sickness. However he re-enlisted on 2 March 1777 in a New York Regiment of the Continental Army and was discharged in December 1777 following completion of his nine months of service. Samuel was a blacksmith, and performed that function in the Army. He did not fight in any major battles.^[6]

Samuel and Sarah Palmer's first child was born two weeks aftrer his first enlistment. Their remaining eight children were born after the completion of his military service. The children were all born in Dutchess County.

Samuel Palmer and family moved to Berne, Albany County, New York, where they were counted in the 1810 Census,^[7] and where he lived in 1818 when he applied for a pension. Beginning in 1820, census records reported this family at Middleburg, Schoharie County, New York, where Samuel was engaged in agriculture. In his later years their son Moses Palmer was listed as the head of the household.^[8]

Information on the children and grandchildren of this family comes from the Family Bible record of Asa W. Palmer. In addition, Pension records listed the children living in 1844 as Phebe, Sally, Samuel, Nancy, Lorinda, Benjamin and Moses.

Samuel and Sarah Palmer had the following children:

1. ESTHER⁶ PALMER b. at Dutchess County on 14 February 1776.
2. PHEBE⁶ PALMER b. at Dutchess County on 21 October 1778; m. WILLIAM DAVIDSON.
3. SARAH⁶ PALMER b. at Dutchess County on 7 March 1781; m. JAMES KELLY.
4. SAMUEL⁶ PALMER b. at Dutchess County on 27 November 1783; d. at Greenville, Greene County, New York, on 16 August 1853; m. EMILY KELLEY.
5. MOSES⁶ PALMER b. at Dutchess County on 2 June 1786; d. at Broome, Schoharie County, on 25 May 1861; m. SARAH CORNELL, b. on 3 September 1782, d. on 5 April 1862.
6. NANCY⁶ PALMER b. at Dutchess County on 5 May 1791; m. on 23 June 1809 ALANSON BROWN.
7. BENJAMIN⁶ PALMER b. at Dutchess County on 18 July 1793; m. on 27 February 1816 BETSEY STANARD.
8. LORINDA⁶ PALMER b. at Dutchess County on 10 April 1795; m. on 16 February 1816 DANIEL JOSLIN.
9. HARRIET⁶ PALMER b. at Dutchess County on 4 April 1801.

¹Information on the family of William Palmer is from: Horace Wilbur Palmer, Palmer Families in America: vol. 1: William Palmer of Yarmouth, Mass, and his descendants of Greenwich, Conn. (Neshanic, New Jersey: Neshanic Printing Co., 1966), pp. 9-12,14,19,20-22,510,784.
²Information on the family of James Palmer is from: Palmer Families in America, pp. 122-23,232,341-42. Greenwich, CT: Vital Records, 1670-1847; New England Historic Genealogical Society. Mss 895. R. Stanton Avery Special Collections, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA., "Abstract of Records and Tombstones of the Town of Greenwich, County of Fairfield and State of Connecticut.," database, American Ancestors (AmericanAncestors.org : accessed 16 August 2020), Birth: David Palmer, 1693; p. 4071; Marriage: Palmer-Hubbard, p. 4056.
³Information on the family of Samuel³ Palmer is from: Palmer Families in America, p. 128-29.
⁴Information on the family of Samuel⁴ Palmer ius from: Palmer Families in America, pp. 129-30, 132,141,187,221-22.
⁵Information on the family of Samuel⁵ Palmer, unless otherwise indicated, is from: Palmer Families in America, pp. 178-79.
⁶United States, "Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files.," digital images, Fold 3 (fold3.com : accessed 15 August 2020), roll 1866, no. S 43,769; Samuel Palmer; NARA M804
⁷Third Census of the United States: 1810, population, Berne, Albany County, New York, roll 26, p. 180, Samuel Palmer; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 14 August 2020); NARA microfilm publication M252; Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.
⁸Fourth Census of the United States: 1820, population, Middleburg, Schoharie County, New York, roll 65, p. 214, Samuel Palmer; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 17 August 2020); NARA microfilm publication M33, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. Fifth Census of the United States: 1830, population, Middleburg, Schoharie County, New York, roll 116, p. 46, Samuel Palmer; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 17 August 2020); NARA microfilm publication M19; Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. Sixth Census of the United States: 1840, population, Middleburg, Schoharie County, New York, roll 338, p. 110, Moses Palmer; digital images, Ancestry (ancestry.com : accessed 16 August 2020); NARA microfilm publication M704, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Greenwich, CT: Vital Records, 1670-1847. New England Historic Genealogical Society. Mss 895. R. Stanton Avery Special Collections, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, MA. "Abstract of Records and Tombstones of the Town of Greenwich, County of Fairfield and State of Connecticut." Database. American Ancestors. AmericanAncestors.org : 2020.

Palmer, Horace Wilbur. Palmer Families in America: vol. 1: William Palmer of Yarmouth, Mass, and his descendants of Greenwich, Conn. Neshanic, New Jersey: Neshanic Printing Co., 1966.

United States. "Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Application Files." Digital images. Fold 3. fold3.com : 2020.

United States Department of the Census. Third Census of the United States: 1810, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2020.

________. Fourth Census of the United States: 1820, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2020.

________. Fifth Census of the United States: 1830, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2020.

________. Sixth Census of the United States: 1840, population. Digital images. Ancestry. ancestry.com : 2020.