Re: Hilliard-Adams

Emanuel HILLIARD

Generation 1

1.       Emanuel HILLIARD (son of Emanuel Hilliard and Orange ADAMS) was born on Dec 13, 1610 in St, Mary Tower, Ipswich, Suffolk, England. He died on Oct 20, 1657 in Boston or Hampton, drowned iat sea just off shore (A very liberal account of this accident was penned by the 1800s poet Henry Greenleaf Whittier in his "The Wreck at Rivermouth"). He married Elizabeth PARKHURST (daughter of George PARKHURST Sr and Phebe Leete) on Apr 10, 1645 in Watertown Massachussetts (He was 25 she was 17). She was born on May 18, 1628 in St Mary On Quay, Ipswich, Suffolk, England. She died on Apr 04, 1675 in Edgartown, Dukes, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Colony, America.

Notes for Emanuel HILLIARD:

First a few basic facts on the name "HILLIARD"

Hilliard: is one of those rare English Matronymic names -- that is, it comes from the name of the mother instead of the father. Hilliard is derived from the Norman female given name Hildiarde/Hildegard , comprised of Germanic elements hild = battle, strife + gard = fortress, strength.

The Hilliard name is noted in England well before 1066 (in other words well before William the Conqueror and is noted throughout the Saxon period as a prominent family) . The name has been found in Normandy in various forms primarily in what is now northern most part of Germany but it may come from the Vikings and it may even track back towards Rollo who was the first true uniter of Normandy.

Some variations include Hilliard, Hilleard, Hillyard , Hillier, Hallier, and Hildyard as in the case of spelling of the last name of his father - Emanuel Hillyard A.K.A. Emmanuel or Em. Hillyard. Emanuel Hillyard's wife was Orange Adams. I can find little to nothing of Orange Adams other than the marriage record with Emanuel (02 Feb 1626 St. Andrews Parish, Plymouth, County Susses, England which does nothing to assist in this search as the dates are slightly off given the date of birth for Emanuel)

Here are a few notes of interest about Emanuel Hilliard:

Emanuel was a mariner and a fisherman by trade. He may have come to this country in his early teens or may have been born here. We know that conflicting reports show him being born in England or New England at about 1618/24. He may have lived in the rough community of fishermen who fished the shallow waters off New Hampshire, mainly in the great fishing grounds for cod which was the most common species in this area. It is possible some or all of his catch may have been salted (preserved) and packed aboard a larger ship for the return trip to England as that was the financial driver for this enterprise and use of this vast natural resource. It is also possible he trapped Lobster off the coastline - the amount of Lobster taken from these waters was so great that indentured servants insisted that their contracts for service would include a section that Lobster would not be served to them at meals - - - more than once a week!

No conclusive evidence has been found that he actually belonged to the “Fishmonger Company” or similar company that took their considerable profits from the sea and sent their catch back to England. He lived on the Isle of Sholes until well after he was deeded land from his wife's, (Elizabeth Parkhurst), kin Timothy Dalton. Dalton was the teacher/minister who was appointed by the religious/legal authorities in Massachusetts Bay Company to keep an eye on the doings of the Reverend Stephen Batchelder who in fact started the community of Hampton, NH.

Emanuel married Elizabeth Parkhurst on Apr 10, 1640 in Watertown, MA. We assume that as he took his livelihood from the sea he continued to do so for some time after his marriage. His first purchase of land is recorded below:

He sold his island house, his stage, flokes [glass or cork floats designed to suspend a fishing net in the water, also know as a gillnet) , his shallop [a small single masted or rowed type of boat], cables and other gear to William Seeley at Isle of Shoals 24 June, 1653. The bill of sale still exists at least in a photographic version and I actually saw it in a book in the St. Louis Central Public Library back

in the 1980's.

"March 18, 1647 Henry Dow of Hampton for money conveys to Manual Hilliard of Hampton 10 acres house & lot & 3 acres of marsh in Hampton adjoining land of Thomas Chase, etc. Witness Timothy Dalton and Willi Howard."

(Found among the old books in the SLPL back in the 1980s)

August 2, 1649 Deed of property given to Emanuel by the Rev. Timothy Dalton. (Rev. Dalton was the husband to Ruth Leete, sister to Phebe Leets wife of George Parkhurst. He was the uncle to Elizabeth Parkhurst Hilliard as was Ruth her aunt.)

"This present obligation witnessed by Mr. Timothy Dalton of Hampton in ye county of Norfolk does upon due and mature consideratuin freely give and bequest unto Manual Hilliard of ye aforsaid county viz. one hundred acres of land, that is to say sixte acres in fresh meadow & forty in uplands &to be on ye north side of Sagamore Hill lying between Taylor's River and ye house & another pt of ye said farm on ye south butting upon Taylor's River toward the east & pt upon pt of said farm toward ye west to give and grant ye aforesaid premises to him, his heirs & assigns forever. In confirmation whereof ye said Mr. Dalton has set to his hand & seal this twenteeth day of ye First month in ye year One thousand six hundred fifty-four current. Timothy Dalton. Signed sealed and delivered in ye presence of John Wheelwright and Seth Fletcher."

(Again I saw this in the SLPL while doing my basic research in the ‘80s)

June 24, 1653 Emanuel sold all holdings on the Isle of Shoals to William Seeley at Isle of Shoals 24 June, 1653.. This included his island house, land, stage (?), flokes (glass or cork floats to suspend a fishing net in the water) his shallop (a small boat about 15 to 30 foot, heavily built, with a single mast that carried fore and aft sails and normally built to carry less than 25 tons. These were known to be fairly frail as well as being an open boat See photo attached to Media), and his cables and gear. The original bill of sale may be in the hands of the descendants of Stephen Batchelder somewhere in Ohio. Again I discovered a photo copy of this document in a old book I found in the SLPL back in the 1980s…

Emanuel died October 20, 1657 when a small boat, likely a shallop and quite possibly Emanuel’s, sank during a sudden storm, drowning eight people. Common belief is that they had been on a shopping excursion to Boston, by the easiest route. This was suggested by the Lane Memorial Library Staff, Hampton, NH, (Sept 2010). It seems that no one really knows if Emanuel’s body, or for that matter, the bodies of any of those who died in the accident, were ever recovered.

Many stories have arisen from this accident including the following that concerns the "supposed" witch Goody Cole. See attached Media document that tells more stories of Emanuel's death from the eyes of the witch hunt that was going on in New England at the time.

From Dow's History of Hampton

The accident happened after the boat left the safety of the Hampton Harbor and was out of easy range of the shore. The poem "Wreck at Rivermouth" by John Greenleaf Whittier tells us a colorful story (with some freedom of poetic embellishment) of the accident.

Rev. Timothy Dalton, uncle to Elizabeth by his wife Ruth Leete, sister to Phebe Leets wife of George Parkhurst who were Elizabeth’s parents and Emanuel's in-laws, performed the memorial service for those who died. I had seen somewhere in the past that Stephen Batchelder also gave the eulogy but I cannot prove that now. Memory is a strange thing - wonderful when it can be proven to be accurate but frustratingly bad when it is simply a dangling remembrance.

Estate of Emanuel Hilliard (who was by grace of his wife's relations was now a land and property owner) -- "Inventory of estate appraised Nov 19, 1657by Robert Tuck, John Sanborn and Henry Dow affirmed by wife Elizabeth to an amount 177.13.6 pounds."

[Norfolk County Mass, Deeds and Wills of New Hampshire, Vol 1, Pg 74/Vol 2, pg 151. Found in the SLPL]

[Francis Page of Hampton acknowledges the receipt from Joseph Merry of Hampton of £53.6.8, in behalf of Benjamin Hilliard and Elizabeth Hilliard, children of Emmanuel Hilliard, it being their share

of their father's estate; dated June 23, 1669; witness, Nathaniel Hatcheller.]

[Norfolk County, Mass., Deeds, vol. 2, p. 151.]

[Timothy Hilliard acknowledges the receipt from his father-in-law, Joseph Merry, of £53.6.4, it being his share in the estate of his father, Emmanuel Hilliard, dated Oct. 13, 1669; witnesses, Samuel Dalton and Jeremy Jewett.] [Norfolk County, Mass., Deeds, vol. 2, p. 151.]


A copy of Emanuel’s will was found in New Hampshire Probate Records #1 1635-1717, Page 36 (Once more found in the SLPL in the 1980s)

Whittier, John Greenleaf : One of the best-loved American poets of the 19th century, John Greenleaf Whittier, b. Haverhill, Mass., Dec. 17,1807, d. Sept. 9, 1892, achieved a national reputation with his nostalgic poem "Snow-Bound" (1866), celebrating the rural world of New England. A Quaker, Whittier began his career as a journalist for William Lloyd Garrison, committing himself to the abolitionist cause in the celebrated pamphlet Justice and Expediency (1833) and thereafter, throughout the Civil War, in numerous polemics and volumes of patriotic verse. He is best remembered today for such popular poems as "Maud Muller" (1854),"The Barefoot Boy" (1855), and "Barbara Frietchie" (1863).

The supposed connection is this: The poet Whitter believed himself to be a descendant of the Reverend Stephen Bachiler. And although I believe this has been disproved it did fuel talk about his motivation and of course his love of the Hampton area. Once more I believe both Steven Batchler and Timothy Dalton may have officiated at the final memorial for those lost in this accident.

Concerning Steven Batchiler/Bachiler - there are two portraits offered of him.

Just a bit about the founder of Hampton, New Hampshire; In one view of this hardy old pioneer, you see an erring and disgraced old man, hunted from place top place by his own mistakes, fleeing from England to America, and finally returning to England to hide from the result of his senile misconduct.

But in the other he is a high-minded but unsuccessful patriarch, with the defects of his qualities, at variance with the narrow and doomed intent of the Bay oligarchs, spending his life in the vain search for religious freedom, and rebelling at the limitations and prescriptions which time was to show were impossible in a free and gradually enlightened democracy. Driven from place to place by the autocracy first of the English church and then of the Winthrop colony, at last he saw triumphant the principles of social and religious enfranchisement, for which he spent his life, his means, and his best ambitions.

Whichever is factual, after a life of turmoil, failure and disgrace, and four or five marriages Bachiler (98/100 years old) returned to England where either he or one of his sons and may have served as a minister to Oliver Cromwell's Protectorate.

It is quietly spoken among those students of Hawthorne that Stephen Bachiler was the model for Arthur Dimmesdale, the eloquent, older (captured as in true life) somewhat nonconformist minister in Nathan Hawthorne’s famous book “The Scarlet Letter”.

An overview of the story “The Scarlet Letter”:

It starts during the summer, near 17th century Boston, Massachusetts, in a Puritan village. A young woman, named Hester Prynne, has been led from the town prison with her infant daughter in her arms and on the breast of her gown "a rag of scarlet cloth" that "assumed the shape of a letter." It is the uppercase letter "A." The Scarlet Letter "A" represents the act of adultery that she has committed and it is to be a symbol of her sin - a badge of shame for all to see. A man, who was elderly and a stranger to the town, enters the crowd and asks another onlooker what's happening. The second man responds by explaining that Hester is being punished for adultery. Hester's husband, who is much older than she, and whose real name is unknown, has sent her ahead to America whilst settling affairs in Europe. However, her husband does not arrive in Boston and the

consensus is that he has been lost at sea. It is apparent that, while waiting for her husband, Hester has had an affair, leading to the birth of her daughter. She will not reveal her lover's identity, however, and the scarlet letter, along with her subsequent public shaming, is the punishment for her sin and secrecy. On this day, Hester is led to the town scaffold and harangued by the town fathers, but she again refuses to identify her child's father.

The elderly onlooker is Hester's missing husband, who is now practicing medicine and calling himself Roger Chillingworth. He settles in Boston, intent on revenge. He reveals his true identity to no one but Hester, whom he has sworn to secrecy. Several years pass. Hester supports herself by working as a seamstress, and her daughter, Pearl, grows into a willful, impish child, and is said to be the scarlet letter come to life as both Hester's love and her punishment. Shunned by the community, they live in a small cottage on the outskirts of Boston. Community officials attempt to take Pearl away from Hester, but with the help of Arthur Dimmesdale, an eloquent older minister, the mother and daughter manage to stay together. Dimmesdale, however, appears to be wasting away and suffers from mysterious heart trouble, seemingly caused by psychological distress. Chillingworth attaches himself to the ailing minister and eventually moves in with him so that he can provide his patient with round-the-clock care. Chillingworth also suspects that there may be a connection between the minister's torments and Hester's secret, and he begins to test Dimmesdale to see what he can learn. One afternoon, while the minister sleeps, Chillingworth discovers something undescribed to the reader, supposedly an "A" burned into Dimmesdale's chest, which convinces him that his suspicions are correct.


Dimmesdale's psychological anguish deepens, and he invents new tortures for himself. In the meantime, Hester's charitable deeds and quiet humility have earned her a reprieve from the scorn of the community. One night, when Pearl is about seven years old, she and her mother are returning home from a visit to the deathbed of John Winthrop when they encounter Dimmesdale atop the town scaffold, trying to punish himself for his sins. Hester and Pearl join him, and the three link hands. Dimmesdale refuses Pearl's request that he acknowledge her publicly the next day, and a meteor marks a dull red "A" in the night sky. It is interpreted by the townsfolk to mean Angel, as a prominent figure in the community had died that night, but Dimmesdale sees it as meaning adultery. Hester can see that the minister's condition is worsening, and she resolves to intervene. She goes to Chillingworth and asks him to stop adding to Dimmesdale's self-torment. Chillingworth refuses. She suggests that she may reveal his true identity to Dimmesdale.

As Hester walks through the forest, she is unable to feel the sunshine. Pearl, on the other hand, basks in it. They coincide with Dimmesdale, also on a stroll through the woods. Hester informs him of the true identity of Chillingworth. The former lovers decide to flee to Europe, where they can live with Pearl as a family. They will take a ship sailing from Boston in four days. Both feel a sense of release and Hester removes her scarlet letter and lets down her hair. The sun immediately breaks through the clouds and trees to illuminate her release and joy. Pearl, playing nearby, does not recognize her mother without the letter. She is unnerved and expels a shriek until her mother points out the letter on the ground. Hester beckons Pearl to come to her, but Pearl will not go to her mother until Hester buttons the letter back onto her dress. Pearl then goes to her mother. Dimmesdale gives Pearl a kiss on the forehead, which Pearl immediately tries to wash off in the brook, because he again refuses to make known publicly their relationship. However, he too clearly feels a release from the pretense of his former life, and the laws and sins he has lived with.

The day before the ship is to sail, the townspeople gather for a holiday put on in honor of an election and Dimmesdale preaches his most eloquent sermon ever. Meanwhile, Hester has learned that Chillingworth knows of their plan and has booked passage on the same ship.

Dimmesdale, leaving the church after his sermon, sees Hester and Pearl standing before the town scaffold. He impulsively mounts the scaffold with his lover and his daughter, and confesses publicly, exposing the mark supposedly seared into the flesh of his chest. He falls dead just after Pearl kisses him.

Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth dies a year later. Hester and Pearl leave Boston, and no one knows what has happened to them. Many years later, Hester returns alone, still wearing the scarlet letter, to live in her old cottage and resumes her charitable work. She receives occasional letters from Pearl, who was rumored to have married a European aristocrat and established a family of her own. Pearl also inherits all of Chillingworth's money even though he knows she is not his daughter. There is a sense of liberation in her and the townspeople, especially the women, who

had finally begun to forgive Hester of her tragic indiscretion. When Hester dies, she is buried in "a new grave near an old and sunken one, in that burial ground beside which King's Chapel has since been built. It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both." The tombstone was decorated with a letter "A", for Hester and Dimmesdale.

The Scarlet Letter is an 1850 romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne who was also a contemporary of John Greenleaf Whittier.

Stephen Bachiler (Bacheilder)

Rev. Stephen Bachiler landed in Boston in 1632 bringing with him his immediate family, his kin by the name of Sanborn, and a few loyal followers who had been members of his church in England.

Bachiler had a married daughter in Lynn [see notes below]. He went immediately there and within three davs from the time he disembarked in Boston he had formed and set up the First Church in Lynn. He was seventy-one years of age, a man of great native force and energy, and as a pastor for a period already a lifetime; he had exercised unquestioned control over his people. A man of such force and self-will could hardly get along with Boston, where the dominant John Cotton and his Tyrannical Magistrates thrust down their iron will upon all within their reach.

After a few months Bachiler gave up his ministry in Lynn and moved to Newbury, when in 1637 the Newbury people had asked privilege of the General Court to improve it, we find Bachiler moved back to Ipswich, and early in 1638, seeking permit from the General Court to go and establish settlement at Winnicunnet.

The permit was granted at the September session of the General Court with the provision that the proposed settlers “Should shortly enter upon and begin ye settlement." In October the hardy old pioneer with a group of his followers came along the coast and up the Hampton River the locality means “The pleasant spot by the pines." The Indians used it to designate that stretch of upland that lay between the great pines and the wind-blown salt meadows with clam flats, beaches, and rivers. Here for centuries the Indians had lazed away the warm days of summer, gorged themselves with fish and clams, while their squaws dug and dried clams for winter food. The abundance of shell and sea food sweep of their scythes would provide food for herds of livestock

Stephen Bacheilder b 1561 Wherwell, Hampshire, England d 1660 Hackney, England married four/five times:

First wife -- Ann Bate

Stephen and Anne’s children were: Nathaniel b 1590;

Deborah b 1592;
Stephen b 1594;
Samuel b1596;
Theodate b 1596;
Nathaniel b 1600;
Ann(e) b 1601 (she married John Sanborne - [their child is the “John Sanborne” who married Mary Tuck] and she likely is the married daughter (living in Lynn) with whom Bachlier lived after his arrival in the New World);

Francis b 1603;
John b 1605;
William b 1607;
Henry b 1609.

Sanborne is sometimes written as Sanborn, Samborne, or Samborn

(SLPL = St. Louis Public Library Main Branch)

Notes for Elizabeth PARKHURST:

Elizabeth [Parkhurst] [Hilliard] Merry -

Elizabeth Parkhurst was born May 18, 1628 at St Mary Le Tower / St Mary On Quay, Ipswich, Suffolk, England. [9th Great Grandmother] She was the 11th child in a family of 12 children.

Her mother, Phebe Leete, was born in 1586 and christened on Dec 20, 1585 at Little Eversden, Cambridgeshire, England. Phebe, Elizabeth’s mother, died on 24th of April, 1645 in Watertown, Middlesex, Massachusetts Bay Colony at age 59. [10th Great Grandmother]

One of Phebe’s sisters, Ruth Leete, was born May 08, 1579 in Little Eversden. [she is my 9 th great grand aunt] She died on May 12, 1666 in Hampton, New Hampshire. She married the Rev. Timothy Dalton on Jun 13, 1615 in Gislingham, Suffolk, England and who was appointed as teacher to the parish established in Hampton New Hampshire by Steven Bachlier. [Timothy is my 11th Great Grand uncle-in-law - please read additional information on pages Timothy Dalton]

A short history of the Leete family:

Phebe’s father, Robert LEETE, [10th great grandfather] was born1525 in Eversden, Cambridgeshire, England died in 1597.

Her mother was Alice Grundy [10th Great Grandmother] born in 1525 died on Feb 17th of 1598, She was from Lancashire, England.

Robert and Alice were married on Apr 06, 1573 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England.

Elizabeth married Emanuel Hilliard on Apr 10, 1645 in Watertown Massachusetts Bay Colony, America, which was the seat of much of the Parkhurst wealth and power in this new world of opportunity.

Elizabeth’s father was George Parkhurst, [my 10th Great Grandfather] who was born in May of 1589 in Key Parrish, Ipswich, Suffolk, England. [please see addtional notes under Geprge Parkhurst]

Elizabeth and Emanuel - we see that Timothy Dalton's 2nd wife (Elizabeth Hingham), deeded land and property to Elizabeth Parkhurst / Hillard and to Elizabeth’s and Emanuel’s four children.

[Side Note: Joseph Merry provided a bond against the deeded land and property that Elizabeth and her children were due when Emanuel died. That he and the young widow would be further involved was still to be revealed]

Elizabeth and Emanuel's first child was Timothy, likely named after Elizabeth’s kin, the Reverend Timothy Dalton. Timothy is responsible for the branch of the Hilliard Tree, the “St. Louis Hilliards” from whom I have descended was born Mar 03, 1645. He married Apphlia PHILBRICK who died following the birth of their last child [a difficult childbirth]. Timothy then married Apphlia’s younger sister Mehitable PHILBRICK.

Their second child was named John. He died as an infant, born in May of 1651 and died in Aug of the same year

Emanuel and Elizabeth's third child was a son named Benjamin. He was born Nov 02, 1652. Sadly, but typical for the violent and deadly times, he was killed during an Indian raid in 1677. A small section of his story is this: about June of 1677 Indians appeared in Hampton, New Hampshire, and killed four men in a part of the town called North Hill (now North Hampton). These four were: Benjamin Hilliard, Edward Colcord, Jr., Abraham Perkins, Jr., and Caleb Towle. Perkins had a wife and three daughters. The others were unmarried. Hilliard's age was 24; Colcord's, 25; Perkins', 37; and Towle's was 16.

The last of their four children was named Elizabeth after her mother. She married John Mayhew of the Mayhew's of Martha’s Vineyard in 1672.

On Oct 20th or 1657 Elizabeth’s husband Emanuel died at sea on his way to Boston with seven other Hampton inhabitants. This was an event that caused a recurrence of sorrow when John Greenleaf Whittier wrote his poem "The Wreck at Rovermouth". He names all the characters who

perished in the accident and gives us a brief glimpse into their times.

Joseph Merry and Elizabeth Parkhurst Hilliard married on Dec 13, 1659

Elizabeth the mother and Elizabeth the daughter removed to Martha’s vineyard in about 1670 after the mother married her second husband, Joseph Merry [in 1659] and after the births of Joseph and Elizabeth's four children.

The children of Joseph and Elizabeth were:

Hannah born Nov 29, 1660 [she married Benjain Skiff on Sept 20th 1679/80] Abigail born Oct 19 of 1662 (she married John Pease]

Bathshebe born jun 16th of 1665 [she married Thomas Pease] Samuel born nov 16th of 1669.

Joseph Merry's first wife, Mary died in Hampton, New Hampshire in1654.

Joseph had two young children with his first wife and at age 47 found himself a widower with two small children to care for.

Joseph had engraved on his grave stone: that being verified in him Psalms 92 14 “They shall bring forth fruit in old age," which comment referred to Joseph being well past midlife yet starting anew with a young second wife and the successfully siring of four children.

This may have been a bit optimistic due to the fact that Joseph was only 47 when his wife died and only 52 when he and Elizabeth entered into a marriage covenant. Elizabeth was then about 29 years old. So we can see that he was a bit older than Elizabeth in 1659 yet when he died he had reached the ripe old age of 103. This could be called a May and December marriage to be sure.

A bit more about Joseph:

Joseph Merry a prominent pioneer of Tisbury and is first found as a resident of Haverhill, Mass., in 1640, where he lived with his first wife, Mary, until about 1654. They then removed to Hampton, New Hampshire. Mary, his wife, died in Hampton, New Hampshire on April 4, 1657.

Children born to them were:
Martha MERRY born in 1647 died in1678 Joseph, born on Dec. 19, 1654.

Joseph, was a carpenter by trade and plied his craft in Hampton as he had done before in Haverhill. After his wife's death he bought a house and ten acres of upland in Hampton, of Thomas Coleman, Sept. 29, 1657, and at the age of 47 years he found himself a widower, with small children to care for, in a new home. But this didn’t remain so for long.

Emanuel Hilliard of that same town was drowned a short time later on October 20th of 1657, leaving a relatively young widow, Elizabeth, daughter of George Parkhurst and Phebe Leete of Ipswich, England, and sister to George Parkhurst Jr. of Watertown, Massachusetts Bay Colony. The young widow was then about 29 years old, but her immediate needs were to secure a future and a husband who could provide for her children and herself. Two years had passed before she entered into a marriage covenant with Joseph Merry, who was then more than 20 years her senior. In this agreement he gave her the house and ten acres he had recently acquired. Then on Dec. 13, 1659, [when the covenant was dated] they set up housekeeping, and four children were born to them in rapid succession, these children later spent their days on the Vineyard.

Joseph Merry and his young family, consisting of Hannah, Abigail, Bathsheba and Samuel, born between 1660 and 1669 lived in Hampton, New Hampshire, till 1670, when Joseph became attracted to life on the Vineyard. If we credit the tradition that Governor Mayhew's first wife was a Parkhurst, possibly another sister of George Parkhurst Jr. of Watertown, it ‘s easy to see that Elizabeth [Parkhurst- Hilliard] Merry was related by marriage to the proprietor of Martha's Vineyard and thus the family connection may have been responsible for Merry and his family’s migration. However that may be, almost as soon as the new township of Tisbury had been bought by Pabodie and his partners (possibly from the Swain family who at one time owned the entire island), Mr. Merry bought from Benjamin Church, on Nov. 19, 1669, the grist mill and its privileges "uppon the

westermost Brook of Takemmy" with one eighth part of the propriety, or two shares, in the new settlement. The purchase price was £90 and Merry paid for it in whole or in part with the proceeds of the sale of their Hampton property, the homestead, an island of salt marsh and two shares in cow and ox commons in that town. The deeds were finally passed Dec. 2, 1670, Mrs. Elizabeth Merry and Nathaniel Batchelor acting as his attorneys by previous appointment (Power of Attorney), and from this it is presumed that Mr. Merry was already at the Vineyard attending to his new purchase and preparing a new home for his new little family. The property purchased consisted, as laid out, of the mill on the New Mill river that been operated for some time by the Looks, with land adjoining on the west side of the road, and about eighteen acres on the east side of the road, bounded by the river. This last lot is still known as "Merry's Field" this after a lapse of two and a half centuries, even given that the property did not remain in the family beyond 1705. After operating the mill for five years, Joseph Merry sold that part of his estate to Tristram Coffin of Nantucket, and being then about three-score-and- ten years of age (70 years old) it is presumed that he devoted the rest of his life to his trade and tilling the soil. There is no record as to the location of his house, but in all probability it was in his "Field." His public services were few. He was constable in 1675, road surveyor in 1678 and 1687, and was chosen to divide common lands in 1689 and 1690. On March 2, 1677-8, the grand jury presented him "for contempt of authoritie in not obeying the summons in his Majesties Name to give in testimony" and for this he was mulcted (fined) in the sum of five shillings. In 1681 he sued Simon Athearn in the sum of £20 "for non payment of a frame of a house," but the two compromised on £7 and divided the costs. On July 12, 1689, being then about 82 years of age, he gave his homestead by deed of gift to his only son Samuel, then just entering his 21st year, and from that date on until 1701 his name appears but once in the records, when he gave some "information" about the ancient bounds of a town lot, being then in his 84th year. He passed the century mark in 1707 and died April 5, 1710, at the remarkable age of 103, undoubtedly the oldest person who has ever lived in the town. It is not known whether he survived his wife Elizabeth, as there is no record of her death nor a stone at her grave. If she survived she was 82 when her husband died. Of his children further evidences of longevity are noticeable. His daughter Abigail [nee Merry] Pease died in her 80th year and Hannah [nee Merry] Skiffe at 97 years.

JOSEPH MERRY was related to Phillip Wollidge of Salisbury, Mass. whom he galled "nephew" and possibly to Henry Munday of the same town, who also called Woollidge his nephew. Henry Smith of London, gent. in his will 1647 made a bequest to his "nephew" Henry Mundy. These relationships may be clues to Joseph Merry's antecedents.] The name is very rarely found in English records of his time except in the southwest counties, particularly in Gloucestershire, but no connection has been established between him and his home in England prior to migration.





Generation 2

2.       Emanuel Hilliard (son of HILDYARD) was born on Mar 31, 1593 in Tisbury, Wiltshire, England. He died in Apr 1626 in England. He married Orange ADAMS on Feb 02, 1626 in Plymouth, Devon, England.

3.       Orange ADAMS was born in 1600 in Tisbury, Wiltshire, England. She died in England.

Orange ADAMS and Emanuel Hilliard had the following child:

1.       i. Emanuel HILLIARD (son of Emanuel Hilliard and Orange ADAMS) was born on Dec 13, 1610 in St, Mary Tower, Ipswich, Suffolk, England. He died on Oct 20, 1657 in Boston or Hampton, drowned iat sea just off shore (A very liberal account of this accident was penned by the 1800s poet Henry Greenleaf Whittier in his "The Wreck at Rivermouth"). He married Elizabeth PARKHURST (daughter of George PARKHURST Sr and Phebe Leete) on Apr 10, 1645 in Watertown Massachussetts (He was 25 she was 17). She was born on May 18, 1628 in St Mary On Quay, Ipswich, Suffolk, England. She died on Apr 04, 1675 in Edgartown, Dukes, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Colony, America.


Generation 3


4.       HILDYARD was born in 1572 in Tisbury, Wiltshire, England. He died in England.

HILDYARD had the following child:

2.       i. Emanuel Hilliard (son of HILDYARD) was born on Mar 31, 1593 in Tisbury, Wiltshire, England. He died in Apr 1626 in England. He married Orange ADAMS on Feb 02, 1626 in Plymouth, Devon, England. She was born in 1600 in Tisbury, Wiltshire, England. She died in England.